In 1948 the city of Portland, Oregon, intended to erect a flagpole in a downtown median. When the plan failed, a journalist whose office overlooked the tiny site planted flowers there and named it “Mill Ends,” after the column he wrote for the Oregon Journal. This was a reference to pieces of wood left over at lumber mills in the area.
In 1976, the 2-foot-wide plot was renamed Mill Ends Park. Soon people began decorating it with items that included a horseshoe, a miniature Ferris wheel and a miniscule swimming pool complete with diving board. At one time it was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest park in the world.
