I had exactly one half hour of unscheduled free time yesterday, so of course I spent it reading Wikipedia. Randomly, I read through an entry about the World’s Smallest Park, which is Mill Ends Park located right here in Portland on scenic Naito Parkway.
The entry starts off normal. Then it turns insane.
Mill Ends Park (sometimes mistakenly called Mill’s End Park) in Portland, Oregon, United States, is a small park that was created on St. Patrick’s Day, 1948, to be a colony for leprechauns and a location for snail races.
Uh, what? Luckily, after some sane jibber jabber about the size of the park and its founder, newspaper columnist Dick Fagan, the leprechaun angle resumes:
Fagan told the story of the park’s origin: He looked out the window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran down and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant that he had earned a wish. Fagan said he wished for a park of his own; but since he had not specified the size of the park in his wish, the leprechaun gave him the hole. Over the next two decades, Fagan often featured the park and its head leprechaun, named Patrick O’Toole, in his whimsical column.
We wrote about Mill Ends a couple years ago but somehow neglected to mention that the official purpose of the park is to provide a home for snail-racing leprechauns. In most cities, Fagan would probably lose his job for announcing he often conversed with the wee king of the leprechauns. In Portland, he got a hero’s applause and his own public park.
Bwaaaaaaaaa HA Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
I’ve always thought that the entire park should be placed atop a parade float during Rose Festival. We not only have one of the largest parks within a city-limits (Forest Park), but also the smallest… why not put that proud fact on parade? What other city can have a touring public park?
The city’s Mill Ends page also mentions UFO’s and Ferris Wheels
http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder…
I can’t believe this park is just sitting there and not being given away to someone!
Let’s bulldoze it and put a tiny mini-mall, stadium, and some leprechaun condos on it!
Will, what happens when the leprechauns fail to buy the condos or the stadium doesn’t prove as popular with the leprechauns as the backers hope? Are we going to have some more vacant buildings in downtown, and are we going to have to bail out the developer?
WILL- You are a disgusting hipster. You really should FULLY pay your taxes, especially on tips you receive! It is a crime to not report all income earned! Here that knocling on your door? It’s just IRS agents…and they have guns! Don’t crap your pants! You have been reported!
no comment..
Hahah. Maybe I’m commenting on here too much. I’m starting to get trolls replying to me with unrelated comments from other threads, about taxes. Maybe I nailed that guy’s girlfriend or something.