Statistics Courtesy Wikipedia®
Green River in Kentucky
Statistics Courtesy Wikipedia®
The Green River is a tributary of the Ohio River that rises in Lincoln County in south-central Kentucky. In 1842, Kentucky's Green river was canalized, with a series of locks and dams being built to create a navigable channel as far inland as Bowling Green, Kentucky. Four locks and dams were constructed on the Green River, and one lock and dam was built on the Barren River, a Green River tributary that passed through Bowling Green.
In 1901, two additional locks and dams were opened on the Green River, which allowed river traffic to Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. In 1941, the Mammoth Cave National Park was established, and the two upper locks and dams closed in 1950. In 1965, Lock and Dam #4 at Woodbury, Kentucky failed; this being the dam that locked both the Green and Barren rivers.
The Green River is the longest river, at 370 miles, to flow completely within the Commonwealth of Kentucky's borders. The 370-mile long Green River, an important transportation artery for the coal industry, is open to traffic up to the closed Lock and Dam #3 at mile 108.5. Muhlenberg County, once the largest coal-producing county in the nation, benefits greatly from access to the river as does the aluminum industry in Henderson County . In 2002, more than 10 million short tons were shipped on the river, primarily lignite coal, petroleum coke and aluminum ore.
The Green River flows through Mammoth Cave National Park, located ca. miles 190-205. The river drains the cave and controls the master base level of the Mammoth Cave System: the construction of a 9 foot (2.7 m) dam at Brownsville, Kentucky in 1906 has raised the water level in some parts of the cave system by as much as six feet (1.8 m) above its natural value.
Muhlenberg County and the Green River will forever be linked in the minds of many by the John Prine song "Paradise" about a (now defunct) coal-mining town in Muhlenberg County. Lyrics to "Paradise" are Down Here.
The Green River holds several Kentucky state fish records.
Flathead Catfish, 97lbs, caught by Esker Carroll on June 6, 1956
Bighead Carp, 52lbs, caught by Donny Lee Johnson on July 8, 2001
Freshwater Drum, 38lbs, caught by Larry Caldwell on June 5, 1980
Bowfin, 15lbs 8oz, caught by Norman Moran on May 31, 1999
Paradise
Old Photo's of Paradise, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.
Artist/Band: Official Web site and
John Prine - Highest Achievement
Lyrics for Song: Paradise
Lyrics for Album: Great Days: The John Prine Anthology
It was also recorded by Lynn Anderson, 1976 (#26),
and also: Country Junction • Jim & Jesse • Tom T. Hall
• String Cheese Incident • Jackie DeShannon
• John Denver • Everly Brothers
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.
Chorus:
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
Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
Repeat Chorus:
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.
Repeat Chorus:
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.
Repeat Chorus:
Picture Courtesy Muhlenberg County
Paradise, Kentucky Paradise was a small town located in Muhlenberg County in the US state of Kentucky. It was once a trading post along the Green River, but it no longer exists.
It was torn down in 1967 by the Tennessee Valley Authority to make room for a coal-burning electric plant, not by Peabody Coal Company as in the Paradise Song by John Prine!
It was memorialied in a folk song entitled "Paradise", by John Prine.
Info Courtesy Answers.com:
Pictures Courtesy Muhlenberg County
Paradise was an eastern Muhlenberg county town on the Green River about ten miles northeast of Greenville. It was settled early in the nineteenth century and was known as Stum's Landing (for Leonard Stum who owned a store and ferry there). It may have also been known as Monterey (for the town in Mexico), but was renamed Paradise for reasons that are now obscure. The site of Paradise is now occupied by a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-fired electric plant. The Paradise post office opened in 1852 and closed in 1967.
Info courtesy University of Kentucky
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