Paradise is a small

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

located in

Cochise County Cochise County ( ) is a county in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arizona. It is named after Cochise, a Chiricahua Apache who was a key war leader during the Apache Wars. The population was 125,447 at the 2020 census. The county ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. The town was settled in 1901 in what was then the

Arizona Territory The Territory of Arizona, commonly known as the Arizona Territory, was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the ...

. Paradise is also the setting for the first two Postal games.

History

In 1901 the Chiricahua Development Company located a vein of ore here. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was established on October 23, 1901, and at its peak, the town had

saloons Saloon may refer to: Buildings and businesses * One of the bars in a traditional British pub * An alternative name for a bar (establishment) * Western saloon, a historical style of American bar * The Saloon, a bar and music venue in San Francis ...

general stores A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, a jail and a hotel. The town was essentially abandoned when the local mines failed, and the post office closed on September 30, 1943. However, a few residents remained. In June 2011, there were five permanent residents and 29 standing structures when the

Horseshoe 2 Fire The Horseshoe 2 Fire was a 2011 wildfire located along the southeastern flank of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. It began in Horseshoe Canyon on the Douglas Ranger District of the Coronado National Forest on May 8, 2011, at ...

swept through the area. A few homes and cemetery remain.

Geography

Paradise is located 5.7 miles west (up-mountain) from

Portal, Arizona Portal is an unincorporated community in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. It lies south-southeast of San Simon and at the mouth of Cave Creek Canyon on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains. Often called the Yosemite of Arizona, th ...

, and is surrounded by

Coronado National Forest The Coronado National Forest is a United States National Forest that includes an area of about 1.78 million acres (7,200 km2) spread throughout mountain ranges in southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico. It is located in parts of ...

land.

Climate

According to the

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

system, Paradise has a

hot-summer mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, abbreviated "Csa" on climate maps. The hottest temperature recorded in Paradise was on July 8, 1912, while the coldest temperature recorded was on February 3, 2011.

In media

The ghost-town of Paradise is also notably featured in media, such as video games and motion pictures. * Postal (1997) *

Postal 2 ''Postal 2'' is a 2003 first-person shooter video game developed by Running with Scissors and published by Whiptail Interactive. It is the sequel to the 1997 game '' Postal'' and was released for Microsoft Windows in April 2003, macOS in April ...

(2003) * Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend (2005) *

Postal Babes ''Postal Babes'' (stylized as ''POSTALBabes'') is a mobile game A mobile game is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any Mobile device, portable device, including fr ...

(2009) * Postal 2: Paradise Lost (2015) *

Postal (film) ''Postal'' is a 2007 action comedy film co-written and directed by Uwe Boll, and starring Zack Ward, Dave Foley, Chris Coppola, Jackie Tohn, J. K. Simmons, Verne Troyer, Larry Thomas, David Huddleston and Seymour Cassel. Like some of ...

(2007 - Motion Picture) * A Long Ride From Hell (1968 - Motion Picture)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Former populated places in Cochise County, Arizona Ghost towns in Arizona