Paradise, Kentucky

TVA Plant - Paradise, KY

Paradise - by John Prine

When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.





And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

This is a photo I found on the internet
of Airdrie Hill (no owner info given). 
It was not a prison, but a foundry. 
It was, however, built by prison labor,
which is probably where the song
reference comes from

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.











TVA Coal Piles
Paradise, KY

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.








The Green River at Rochester Dam
Muhlenberg County, KY

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.



Efforts are being made by Peabody to
reclaim strip mine sites.  In all fairness, tho,
Peabody is NOT the company that
razed Paradise - TVA did.  But Peabody is
on the other side of the road.

 
 
 
 



And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away









John Prine Boulevard - Drakesboro, KY

Obviously - today we went to Paradise, KY.  Very sad to see that the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) has expanded and is now taking over the old boat ramp, as well as additional lands, possibly encroaching on where Airdrie Hill is known to be - although I don't know for sure - as I've never been willing to bushwack to find it - there's cottonmouths and water moccasins down there.  For some interesting reading, and if you have time - because there are several pages - go HERE. 

A great deal has changed since I was here some 13 or 14 years ago. 

We also went to Mammoth Cave National Park, but the pictures I tried to take in the cave did not turn out at all, so, no pictures. 

However, we did drive to St. Louis for the night...so here's a sneak peak for tomorrow.  Night all