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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Paradox (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Paradox. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the west. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the west contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Paradox is located in Montrose County.

To see how the shape of Colorado's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Montrose County: Delta, Gunnison, Mesa, Ouray, San Miguel & San Juan (UT).

Below are the counties that are near Paradox. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Paradox:

  • Montrose County     (The home county of Paradox)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paradox, with the one closest to Paradox listed first.
    • Bedrock
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Uravan ‑ Historic
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
      • Uravan is located in Montrose County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Uravan
    • Vancorum
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southeast)
      • Vancorum is located in Montrose County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vancorum
    • Nucla
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Naturita
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Mountain View
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Mountain View is located in Montrose County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mountain View
  • Mesa County
  • San Miguel County
  • Grand County (UT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paradox, with the one closest to Paradox listed first.
    • Basin ‑ Historic
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northwest)
      • Basin is located in Grand County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Basin
    • Castleton ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Castleton is located in Grand County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castleton
    • Wilson's Mesa ‑ Historic
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Wilson's Mesa is located in Grand County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wilson's Mesa
      • Wilson's Mesa has also been known as:
      • Mesa
    • Plainfield ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Plainfield is located in Grand County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Plainfield
      • Plainfield has also been known as:
      • Bueno
      • Poverty Flat
      • Poverty Flats
      • Spanish Valley
    • Castle Valley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Castle Valley is located in Grand County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Valley
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 351 people
  • San Juan County (UT)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Paradox, with the one closest to Paradox listed first.
    • La Sal ‑ Historic
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • La Sal is located in San Juan County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Sal
      • Former name for La Sal:
      • Coyote
      • La Sal has also been known as:
      • Old La Sal
    • La Sal
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
    • Spanish Valley
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
      • Spanish Valley is located in San Juan County (UT)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spanish Valley

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Paradox, see our County-by-County Page for Paradox.

Cemeteries Near Paradox ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Paradox.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Paradox - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Paradox covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Paradox, with the one closest to Paradox listed first.

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Paradox had a post office and no railroad service.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Paradox, with the one closest to Paradox listed first.

  • Bedrock
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • La Sal ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • La Sal is located in San Juan County (UT)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for La Sal
    • Former name for La Sal:
    • Coyote
    • La Sal has also been known as:
    • Old La Sal
  • La Sal
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
  • Naturita
    (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Paradox. See our List of 1890's Communities around Paradox.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Paradox:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Paradox, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.