Paradise, Arizona

Paradise is a former mining town in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, surrounded by National Forest land. It is located 5.5 miles west (up-mountain) from Portal at latitude 31.56ºN, longitude 109.13ºW, and altitude 5,460 feet. During its short but lively heyday, the town had bars, a barber shop, mercantile stores, hotels, a jail, and a red-light district. Almost everyone left when the mines failed, pulling down their homes and businesses and taking the lumber with them.

In 1901 the Chiricahua Development Company located a vein of ore here. A post office was established October 23, 1901 and discontinued September 30, 1943. [Granger, Byrd H. (1970) "Arizona Place Names", Tucson: University of Arizona Press]

There are significant temperature extremes in Paradise.

The controversial computer game Postal² and its cinematic counterpart are both set in a fictionalized version of Paradise.

References

*Alden Hayes, "A Portal to Paradise", University of Arizona Press (1999), ISBN 0816521441