Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Paradise, KS

Paradise is a small city in Russell County in north-central Kansas, sitting on the north bank of Paradise Creek, a tributary of the Saline River, in the Smoky Hills region.

Paradise got its name in 1859, when hunter James R. Mead described a creekside site rich in water, timber, and bison as a paradise, and the stream became Paradise Creek.

The first post office named Paradise opened in the area in 1875, more than a decade before there was a town at the present site.

In 1887 the Union Townsite Company founded the town as Ivamar, named for Iva Marr, the daughter of a local rancher, and the Paradise post office moved there the next year while keeping its old name, so the town was known by both names for decades.

Paradise grew to about 200 people by 1910 with a school, downtown businesses, and Union Pacific railroad facilities on Kansas Highway 18, about 15 miles north-northwest of Russell.

The town incorporated in 1924 and only then officially changed its name from Ivamar to Paradise.

Paradise peaked at 178 residents in the 1930 census, and the 2020 census counted just 35 people, down from 49 in 2010, when the city had 22 households on about 0.25 square miles.