Paradise was settled in the early nineteenth century, known originally 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, however, is unknown. It is postulated the name was descriptive, for settlers who considered the setting to be paradise when they arrived around 1797. A
post office was established on March 1, 1852, and it remained open until March 1967. Paradise was a coal mining town. Production of coal in the area dates back to the 1820s.
TVA coal-fired power plant In 1959, the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began construction of a coal plant on the original site of the town of Paradise, with the first unit of that plant being activated in May 1963. The coal-fired plants were controversial and were criticized by environmentalists for non-compliance with the
Clean Air Act. 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. From 2017 through 2022, the plant was converted into a combined cycle plant that generates electrical power from
natural gas; the conversion was completed with the retiring of coal-fired Unit 3 in 2020.
Demise of the town The town continued to endure after the
Pittsburg & Midway Coal Company and
Peabody Coal Company stripped the coal around it, albeit in reduced size. 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. Some 800 residents lived in the town in its final years before it was disincorporated. The last of the town's residents were relocated from the area no later than December 30, 1967. ==Geography==