Paradise, Kentucky

Michigan is still home to Hell  but in 1967, Paradise disappeared from Kentucky, remaining only as a ghost town. Four years later John Prine wrote a song about it which I was listening to yesterday. My curiosity got the better of me.




Paradise was a small town in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. It was torn down in 1967 by the Tennessee Valley Authority due to health concerns over its proximity to a nearby coal-burning electric plant, Paradise Fossil Plant.

Paradise was settled in the early nineteenth century. It is postulated the name was descriptive, for settlers who considered the setting to be paradise. A post office was established at Paradise on March 1, 1852; it closed in 1967.

A song about Paradise, Kentucky, called "Paradise", was written and made famous by singer/songwriter John Prine. The lyrics attribute the destruction of Paradise to the Peabody company, and allude to the fact that the town was a site for strip mining. In reality, the town remained in partial form after the Pittsburgh & Midway Coal Mining Company and Peabody Coal Company 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 Tennessee Valley Authority 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 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. (abstracted from Wikipedia)

Prine mentions the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill (about 1 mile north of Paradise) in his song.  Found a link to it with some rather fascinating history and a picture of the remaining two stone structures (and also with a link to the Breathitt County Feuds. Fun times in old Kentuck').

Also found this description of the stone structures The Story of Airdrie.

".........A wealthy Scot who lived in Scotland, but who had been born in Kentucky, became aware that Scotland was in a terrible state and the iron ore sources were depleting..........". "..........The Scottish immigrants sailed to the new land in 1854 and immediately began building a city and the iron ore business........" "......Airdrie's furnace was in operation no more than 8 weeks before it would blow a boiler. After three failed attempts to produce quality iron ore, and after 1/3 of a million dollars spent, the owner had enough and called for the ironworks to be closed in the fall of 1857......."

Location of Power plants and strip mining

Location of Rochester dam mentioned in the last verse of the song