World’s Smallest Parks
Wednesday, 24th January 2007 by Alex Turnbull
The state of Oregon has not just one, but two of the smallest municipal parks in the whole world.
The first, Waldo Park in Salem, is only 3.6 by 6 metres and only contains a plaque, and a giant sequoia. Yes, one of the world's smallest parks contains an example of the largest type of tree on the face of the planet.
Mill Ends Park in nearby Portland is contained within a circle 61cm across, which sadly makes it almost completely invisible on the Google satellite shot (Look closely however, it's situated right inbetween the two roads, and appears as a dark spot exactly in the centre of our thumbnail).
The park was created on St. Patrick's Day 1948 (apparently to serve as "a colony for leprechauns and a location for snail races"), and despite the odds, in 1971 Mill Ends Park was officially recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest park.
Further reading: The history of Waldo Park and Mill Ends Park at Wikipedia, and our post featuring The World's Shortest River.
Thanks to John Riggs.
About the author
Alex has decided that his title will be Senior Vice President of Stuff.
I’ve been to Mills End Park. I’ve got a photo of me standing there in the rain at home.
Thanks to being in the Portland Geocache Machine, I’ve been to Mill Ends. There is more space used on the nearby streets explaining the park than used by the park itself! There was semi-virtual cache that took you to it.
What is the qualification for a park?
Just what I was thinking Ajit.
I live near plenty of tiny plots of grass with one tree planted in it, but i’m sure it doesn’t qualify as a park.
Yeah I did wonder that too, but I mean if they say it’s a park….
I guess it just requires approval from the local governing body? I might campaign my local council to create the world’s smallest park on the pavement outside my house 😀
Well, I have one small park in refrigerator – on a sandwich. Does it count?
Oregon is a also home to Forrest Park – largest natural urban forest reserve in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Park_(Portland)
ooops.. wordpress mangled that link, try this one: Forest Park
This post is over two years old and no one thought of “Where’s Waldo?” for Waldo Park, one of the smallest parks in the world? You people should be ashamed!