Float or Flight

F Dr said it best when he said the parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle, and people seem to agree given their three million annual visits. Not all parks are as awe inspiring as Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon, though, but that doesn't mean they aren't just as special. Local parks provide places for people to play, relax, walk our dogs, or exhaust the kids before naptime. The local park is a little taste of nature at the

end of the block. There's one park in Portland, Oregon that's just such a destination, featuring lush greenery in the center of the city's downtown area. The park has a bit of a storied past. According to Dick Fagan, a columnist for the Oregon Journal newspaper in ninety The park started life as a plot of land across the street from his office. One day, according to him, while looking out his office window, he noticed something going on right in the middle of the property, digging a hole was

a lepre con. Fagan ran across the streets and managed to capture the creature, which earned him a single wish for his efforts. Bagan had had one dream his entire life, and this was his chance to make it a reality. It always wanted a park of his own, somewhere he could visit during the day when he needed to get away from the hustle and bustle of the newsroom. The Leprechn relented, and suddenly Dick Fagan was the proud owner of a brand new park just for him. Except he

hadn't specified how he wanted his park to look. Rather than green grass and tall trees, Fagan was left with nothing more than a hole the Leprechn had been digging. He didn't let such a minor inconvenience deter him, though. He planted his own greenery and named the space after his column in the paper. Mill Ends, also known as the Odd Pieces of wood left over at lumber Mills. Fagin took the writing stories about the Leprechn for Portland readers.

When the town established in eleven o'clock curfew for all city parks, the Leprechn return and asked Fagan to publish his threat toward the mayor, daring him to evict him and anyone else from mill Ends Park after eleven pm. The mayor kept away, as did the authorities, and the

Leprechn was allowed to stay in the park after hours. Sadly, Fagin didn't live to see his little plot of land become an official Portlands park in nineteen seventy six, having passed away from cancer just a handful of years before, but he's remembered each day as visitors passed by the circular park and gaze upon the lone tree standing at its center. Yes, mill Ends Park only has one tree. That's all it can fit. And of course it should come as no surprise that the Leprechn who had given

Fagin the land didn't actually exist. He was a fabrication for the newspaper, something to entertain readers. The park, however, is very real, and it sits in the Median Strip on southwest NATO Parkway in Portland. It had originally been meant to hold a light pole, which was never installed.

Not content to look at a dirt hole in the ground across from his office, Fagan planted flowers in the space and declared the spot mill Ends Park in his paper, then the leprechn Store he was invented to add some flavor to what was nothing more than a mild case of civil disobedience. The tale of Millens Park doesn't end there, though, spanning no more than two ft across, it was named the smallest park in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records in nineteen seventy one, and it's held

that rank for almost forty years. That has also become the site of numerous St Patrick's Day festivities. The day that it was declared as an official park back in ninety six, and to this day, mill Ens Park stands not only as a record setting memory to one man's silent protest, but also, according to Fagin himself, as the only lepre con colony west of Ireland. The aftermath of World War Two left many European countries in die or straits.

Cities had been reduced to rubble deaths numbered in the thousands, and economies had been reduced to fractions of their former worth. One such country was Italy, which had started the war as Germany's partner thanks to fascist leader Benito Mussolini. After it was captured by the Allies in nineteen forty three,

Italy swhich sides. Italian leaders spent the years following the war purging the country of fascism and rebuilding what they had lost, namely their economy and their reputation among the rest of the world. In nineteen fifty one, an Italian shipping line based out of Genoa launched what it hoped would be an enormous step in the right direction, a seven hundred foot long ocean liner named the Andrea Doria. With the ability to carry twelve hundred passengers and another

five hundred crew members. The Andrea Doria represented the peak of Italian luxury. It boasted three outdoor swimming pools, works of art hanging in the hallway, days of the first class cabins, and numerous state of the art safety features such as eleven watertight compartments, and a relatively new technology at the time known as radar. The Andrea Doria took her maiden voyage on January four, nine fifty three, from her home in Genoa, reaching her New York destination almost

two weeks later on January. The ship went on to make fifty trips over the next four years, but it was on the fifty first trip in nineteen fifty six, when passenger Linda Morgan's life would change forever. She was traveling with her mother, her younger half sister, Joan, and her stepfather, Camille. Camille was a correspondent for the New York Times who had been in Spain on assignment. His story was complete and it was time for him and

his family to come home. He, his wife, and their daughters eagerly boarded the Andrea Doria ready for their return to New York City. On July they took off on a nine day journey to the US and with them over sevent d other passengers and crew. One day before the end of the trip, at about a quarter to eleven at night, the Andrea Doria spotted another ship on its radar, the M S Stockholm from Sweden. Both ships had ample warning about each other's positions and adjusted to

ensure they'd be nothing more than well. Two ships passing in the night, except a heavy fog had settled in and their courses were misinterpreted. Both liners attempted to pass each other on the starboard side, each ship traveling at a speed of roughly twenty knots. By the time the fog cleared and they were able to regain visual contact, it was too late. They were only a few miles away from each other. Turning such large vessels at that

speed and distance apart was impossible without incident. Just after eleven PM, the Stockholm collided with the Andrea Doria off the coast of Nantucket. The blow was fatal to the younger ship, as several of its apartments filled with water and caused it to list over twenty degrees to its starboard side, and such a steep dip proved too much to handle, and eleven hours after the collision, the Andrea

Doria sank to the bottom of the Atlantic. Now eleven hours was a long time to sink, long enough for almost all of the Andrea Doria's passengers and crew to make it off the ship and into lifeboats before it went under, and despite its crushed bow, the Stockholm remained afloat and stable enough to carry some of the survivors to New York, leaving the remaining rescue effort to other ships responding to the Andrea Doria's distress call. Unfortunately, though

not everyone made it off the ill fated liner. Lynda Morgan and her family had been sleeping in Upper Debt cabins fifty two and fifty four, her parents sharing one while she and her sister Joan share the other. These cabins happened to be in the path of the Stockholm's bow as it crashed into the ship. Camille and Joan died almost instantly. Their mother, with help from a doctor in the next cabin, managed to make it safely aboard the Stockholm, albeit with severe injuries from the collision. And

then there was Linda. She was nowhere to be found in the chaos of the crash. Everyone assumed she had been crushed or had sunk to her death in the Atlantic below. According to initial reports, it appeared that her mother, Jane, had been the only survivor of the party. Linda's father, ABC radio personality Edward P. Morgan, reported the news of the sinking on his show. He knew about the casualties, of course, but didn't mention his daughter, which was probably

a good idea. Shortly after the collision, a Stockholm crew member heard a noise coming from an area near the bow of the ship. Well what was left of it, that is. It was a girl's voice calling for her mother in Spanish. The crew member investigated the sound and stumbled upon a confused girl who was battered and bruised but otherwise okay. With the help of another crewmate who spokes s Banish, they were able to communicate with her. I was on the Andrea Doria, she said, where am

I now? Linda Morgan had been tossed from her bed aboard the Andrea Doria and onto the m S Stockholm. She'd survive the impact that had killed her sister and stepfather with only a broken arm. Naturally, the press dubbed her the Miracle Girl. Upon learning of her survival, Linda's father returned to his broadcast the next day and gave the world a little bit of good news. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky, in partnership with how Stuff Works, I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show and you can learn all about it over at the world of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. H