Paradise Found: An Introduction
Life was
hard for the early settlers of America. They were
following a dream they’d been sold, or a vision
they had merely heard about. Many immigrants arrived
seeking religious freedom, fleeing persecutions at
home. Others were merely fleeing poverty and the
overcrowded lands of Europe. For all those early
settlers it was a case of pushing west, heading out
into the unknown, travelling at the speed of horse,
mule or their feet, carrying everything that they
owned with them. The hardships they faced, from
extremes of heat and cold, floods and drought, to the
dangers of a lawless land where the gun or spear
ruled, were immense. The fact that they kept on
pushing into this vast, almost empty land provides
some insight into the life they left behind and the
new life they were seeking. They endured hell in
their search for Paradise.
To those early settlers America must have been an
immense and awesome land, rich and vast, and
thrilling in its grandeur as well as its dangers.
Many of these early settlers differed from the people
they’d left behind. The settlers were looking
for a Paradise here and now, on earth, not a future
salvation earned only by those who passed a
particular set of entry requirements.
The name of these places in the USA called Paradise is a legacy of America’s pioneers. These are places named because, after long and arduous journeys, the first settlers had found their oasis. There was water, good soil, game for shooting and landscapes to be admired. They were places where the natural resources promised an easier life than the purgatory they had been living.
According to the U.S. Government gazetteer there are 26 places called Paradise, and many more called Paradise Springs, Paradise Valley or other such variations on the theme. Of those 26, only 18 exist on modern maps, and of those 18, only 10 exist as separate identifiable communities. Some of those eight that have disappeared since the maps were printed (like Paradise, Louisiana and Paradise, Illinois) have been absorbed by growing towns. Others, like the Paradises in Kentucky or Florida, have been built over by modern industrial progress. The ten that remain vary in size from 11 to 29,000 inhabitants. Mostly they have between four and six hundred residents within their boundaries. The Collins English Dictionary defines Paradise as ‘any place or condition that fulfils all ones desires or aspirations,’ and while the ten Paradises are all different, in location and in character, they all have that definition in common. Almost all of these different communities’ residents consider themselves to have found Paradise, their own little spot of Heaven on Earth.
All these places are representative of small town America and hark back to the time when there were few big cities and crime levels were lower. The residents who were born in Paradise cannot see the attraction of the ‘outside world’ and don’t want to leave. The residents who have moved in are mostly escaping the same ‘outside world.’ All the Paradises are community minded and neighbourly. Most are in stunning locations. And while they all share the same background, they are all different.
What follows here is not a definitive description of each Paradise. The next ten chapters are highly subjective impressions of each place I visited. Due to time constraints, and the distances involved, I never spent more than four days in each Paradise, and often less. If anyone in any Paradise is offended by my perceptions, then I apologise. But this is how I saw it.
