Paradise Valley is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, suc ...

(CDP) in Humboldt County,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, United States, near the Santa Rosa Ranger District of

Humboldt National Forest Humboldt may refer to: People * Alexander von Humboldt, German natural scientist, brother of Wilhelm von Humboldt * Wilhelm von Humboldt, German linguist, philosopher, and diplomat, brother of Alexander von Humboldt Fictional characters * Hu ...

. It is located at the northern terminus of Nevada State Route 290, about northeast of

U.S. Highway 95 US Route 95 (US 95) is a major north–south US Highway in the western United States. It travels through the states of Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho, staying inland from the Pacific Coast. US 95 begins in San Luis ...

and a total of north of Winnemucca. The town is located in a broad valley, with the

Santa Rosa Range The Santa Rosa Range is a mountain range in Humboldt County, Nevada, United States. Most of the range is included within the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. The highest peaks in the range are Granite Peak (9732 feet, 2966 m) and Santa Rosa Pe ...

of mountains just to the northwest. At the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 109.

History

A post office has been in operation at Paradise Valley since 1871. According to tradition, in the 1860s a prospector declared "What a paradise!" upon seeing the valley, after having traveled through the surrounding arid territory.

Demographics

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2010, there were 109 people, 51 households, and 35 families residing in the CDP. There were 92 housing units. The racial makeup of the CDP was 89.0%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...

, 1.8% Native American, 6.4% some other race, and 2.8% from two or more races. 18.3% of the population were

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...

or Latino of any race.

Paradise Valley Folklife Project

The

American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...

of the U.S.

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

conducted extensive

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

field research in Paradise Valley from 1978 to 1982. The Paradise Valley Folklife Project generated a multi-format resource collection documenting the history and culture of the area's ranching community. A team of fieldworkers from AFC documented the distinct ethnic groups in the area (

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño a ...

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from, the Angles, England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to peopl ...

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

, Chinese,

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Northern Paiute Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a ...

); the history of the region, including

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

remains of a Chinese community, foodways, and

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and Culture, cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Traditio ...

s. The resulting material was subsequently packaged by the Library of Congress into a collection titled ''"Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982"''. The collection includes 32 boxes of archival material including manuscripts, audio and video recordings, and several thousand photographic prints and negatives from the AFC project and additional historical archives dating back to 1870. The project was initiated by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

in 1978. File:Preparing a pack horse.jpg, Pack saddle horse on the Grayson Ranch. File:Branding Costume 01.jpg, Branding on the Ninety-Six Ranch. File:Roping on the Ninety-Six Ranch.jpg, Roping on the Ninety-Six Ranch. File:Branding on the Ninety-Six Ranch.jpg, Branding on the Ninety-Six Ranch.

Education

Humboldt County School District The Humboldt County School District is a public school district serving K−12 education in Humboldt County, Nevada, in the northwestern part of the state. Its headquarters are in Winnemucca. History The district had 1,547 students in the 19 ...

serves the community. The sole school in Paradise Valley is the Paradise Valley School, which serves Kindergarten through

eighth grade Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...

. Paradise Valley School had 27 students in the 1963-1964 school year.
Clipping
from

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

In popular culture

The town is name checked in ''

The Beautiful South The Beautiful South were an English pop rock group formed in 1988 by Paul Heaton and Dave Hemingway, two former members of the Hull group The Housemartins, both of whom performed lead and backing vocals. Other members throughout the band's exi ...

'' album track " This Old Skin" at the beginning of the second verse. The lyrics describe it as, "not far from where the West was won". Trapper and self-styled mountain man

Claude Dallas Claude Lafayette Dallas Jr. (born March 11, 1950) was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the deaths of two game wardens in Idaho. On May 16, 1986, he became the 400th fugitive listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted List. Biography Born in Winches ...

eluded capture for 15 months after killing two Idaho Fish & Game wardens in Idaho, near Paradise Valley, in 1981. After conviction, he escaped from prison in 1986 and after almost a year was recaptured in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

. Actress Edna Purviance was born in Paradise Valley.

History

Demographics

Paradise Valley Folklife Project

Education

In popular culture

References

Further reading