Paradise was a small town in

Muhlenberg County Muhlenberg County () is a county in the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,928. Its county seat is Greenville. History Muhlenberg County was formed in 1798 from the areas known as Logan and Christian c ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The town was located east-north-east of Greenville and was formerly called Stom's Landing (sometimes incorrectly spelled Stum).Paradise in Kentucky KYGenWeb
Rennick, Robert M. (1984) ''Kentucky Place Names'', p. 226. Lexington, Ky: The University Press of Kentucky, It was once a trading post along the

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

. The area was strip mined in the 20th century, and what was left of the town was bought-up and torn down in 1967 by the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

due to health concerns related to its proximity to a nearby coal-burning electric plant,

Paradise Fossil Plant The Paradise Combined Cycle Plant (formerly known as Paradise Fossil Plant) is a natural gas power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Located just east of Drakesboro, Kentucky, it was the highest power capacity power plant ...

History

Paradise was settled in the early nineteenth century when it was known as ''Stom's Landing'', for Leonard Stom who founded the ferry there. It may have once been named ''Monterey''. The origin of its final name of ''Paradise'' is not known. It is postulated the name was descriptive, for settlers who considered the setting to be paradise. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

was established at Paradise on March 1, 1852; it closed in 1967. Though the town did endure numerous floods of the

during its lifespan, it survived. In 1959, the TVA built a coal plant at the former site of Paradise. The coal-fired plants remain controversial and the Paradise permits in particular, have been criticized by environmentalists for non-compliance with the Clean Air Act.TVA's Kentucky "Paradise" Coal-fired Plant Operating Permit Fails to Comply With the Clean Air Act
August 24, 2009 from The Center for Biological Diversity Since construction of new scrubbers on Unit 3 at Paradise, the plant's emissions from the massive unit have dropped dramatically in recent years; this in turn has led to a dramatic drop in toxic emissions from the plant overall.

John Prine

A song about Paradise, Kentucky, called "Paradise", was written and made famous by singer/songwriter

John Prine John Edward Prine (; October 10, 1946 – April 7, 2020) was an American singer-songwriter of country-folk music. He was active as a composer, recording artist, live performer, and occasional actor from the early 1970s until his death. He ...

. The lyrics attribute the destruction of Paradise to the Peabody company, referring to the fact that the town was a site for

strip mining Surface mining, including strip mining, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining, is a broad category of mining in which soil and rock overlying the mineral deposit (the overburden) are removed, in contrast to underground mining, in which ...

. The town continued to exist in partial form after the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Company and

Peabody Coal Company Peabody Energy is a coal mining and energy company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its primary business consists of the mining, sale, and distribution of coal, which is purchased for use in electricity generation and steelmaking. Peabody ...

stripped the coal around it. The Paradise Fossil Plant was initially erected with only two units; afterwards, the residents who were left in the village were bought out by the

after ash fall from the newly opened plant brought health concerns to the area. Soon after the TVA bought the town out, they tore down all the structures and constructed the largest cyclonic fired

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

in the world at the new "Paradise Unit 3". All that remains of the original town is a small cemetery at the top of a hill close to the plant. Numerous

cover versions In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the song have been recorded.

References

External links

Ancestors of Robert Stom & Christine (Hilton) Stom

- links up old photos of the town to each line of the lyrics
An up-to-date picture of the TVA Paradise Fossil Plant
This plant is the second largest coal-fired plant in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), rated at 2,558 megawatts at Winter Peak. {{coord, 37, 16, 05, N, 86, 59, 01, W, type:city_region:US-KY, display=title Ghost towns in Kentucky Geography of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Populated places disestablished in 1967 1967 disestablishments in Kentucky Peabody Energy