건설콘페이퍼 Engi's CONPAPER

세계 최소형 공원 '밀엔즈 파크' World’s Smallest Park Measures Only Two Feet in Diameter

미 오레곤주 포틀랜드에 있는 '밀엔즈 파크'는 세계에서 제일 작은 공원이다.

둘레가 겨우 2피트(60cm)

1948년 이곳에는 원래 조그만 구멍이 있었다.

오레곤주 칼럼니스트 '딕 파거'는 자신의 사무실에서 보이는 이 구멍이 흉물스러워 보여

고민하다가 작은 정원을 만들기로 했다.

이 최소형 공원에는 파거의 칼럼명인 밀엔즈라는 이름이 붙여졌다.

by Ki Chul Hwang

Conpaper Editor Distributor @conpaper

황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터

Posted by Sara Barnes

Blink and you might miss Mill Ends Park, the world’s smallest park located in Portland, Oregon. It’s only two feet in diameter - more of a planter than green space - but that’s enough to make it in the Guinness Book of World Records.

In 1948, the park was just a hole in the ground that was scheduled to become a light pole. It never appeared, though, and weeds sprouted instead. Dick Fagan, a columnist for the Oregon Journal, had an office overlooking the median with the hole, and he decided to beautify the eyesore. Fagan planted flowers in the space and named it after his popular newspaper column, Mill Ends.

The writer made up a fantastical origin story for the new-found park. As legend has it, Fagan looked out the window and spotted a leprechaun digging in the hole. He ran downstairs and grabbed the leprechaun, which meant he had earned a wish - it was to have a park of his own. But, because Fagan never said how large the park should be, the leprechaun just gave him a hole. This character was featured many times in Fagan’s column over the following two decades.

Sadly, Fagan died of cancer in 1969, but the park still lives on thanks to the kindness of local residents. Portland even made it an official city park on St. Patrick’s Day in 1976. People have since added their own contributions to the site, like tiny swimming pools, statues, and a flying saucer. Events are also held there, including a tongue-in-cheek 2011 Occupy Portland demonstration, which was complete with plastic army men holding up tiny protest signs.

Above photo credit: Craig Dietrich

Photo credit: Mike Krzeszak

Photo credit: brx0

Photo credit: Dan Reed

Mill Ends Park during the Occupy Portland in 2011. Photo credit: thekirbster

Mill Ends Park website
via [Neatorama and Amusing Planet]