PORTLAND, Ore. — For weeks, one of Portland's most iconic parks has been all but barren — its canopy poached, perhaps, by some pilfering highwayman, or carried away during the wild week of winter weather that felled so many trees in January.
Located at Southwest Naito Parkway and Taylor Street, Mill Ends Park remains (certifiably) the world's smallest park. As a result, it's never had room for much more than a single small tree.
According to Mark Ross, a spokesperson for Portland Parks & Recreation (PP&R), the tree up and disappeared about two weeks ago.
Adam Smith and Jim Turner, both tour guides for Infinite Oregon Tours, said they first noticed that the park was barren while giving a tour on Jan. 26. When they returned a week later, the tree remained misplaced. They contacted PP&R, who told him that "the park plant must have been stolen," Smith said.
Smith said he had the idea of putting a temporary replacement plant in the spot, but didn't end up following through. Turner, though, decided to run with the idea — he "put a bird on it."
For now, Mill Ends Park sports Turner's cardinal and little else. But Ross said that Parks staff will replace the missing tree soon, at an estimated cost of $29, with a dwarf Alberta spruce.
"Just in time to get the new tree established before the St. Patrick’s Day holiday, a staple of Mill Ends Park," Ross said.
Like much of the city, Mill Ends Park has experienced its share of adversity over the last few years. In late 2019, vandals made off with the tree. At the time, Portland Parks estimated that it would take just $3-5 to replace it, suggesting that there's been rampant treeflation since the COVID-19 pandemic.
In 2022, the entire park had to be relocated, migrating six inches west as part of the Better Naito Forever project.
Mill Ends Park has been around in an official capacity since the late 1940s, commissioned in the honor of eccentric columnist Dick Fagen, who documented the park and its quixotic happenings when it was still just a hole in the ground where a lamp post used to be. In Fagen's telling, Mill Ends was a home for leprechauns.
According to the Guinness World Records website, Mill Ends Park has held the title of "World's Smallest Park" since 1976.