Editing Paradise, California (section)

===Naming===
According to [[GNIS]], the community has been known in the past by four different names or spellings: ''Leonards Mill'',  ''Poverty Ridge'', ''Pair-O-Dice'', and ''Paradice''.<ref name="GNIS"/>

A legend persists that the town was named because it was the home of the ''Pair o' Dice Saloon'', an idea supported by a 1900 railroad map referring to the town as ''Paradice''. However, no documentation has been found to prove the establishment existed, nor an explanation of the spelling of the town's name on the map.<ref name="Snopes-20130919">{{cite web |first=David |last=Mikkelson |title=Place Name Origins: Paradise, California |url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stranger-in-paradise/ |website=[[Snopes.com]] |access-date=November 16, 2018 |date=September 19, 2013}}</ref>

Gene Sylva, a former mayor of the nearby town of [[Oroville, California|Oroville]], has stated that the saloon story is false, and that the true etymology of the town's name can be traced to his great-great-grandfather, William Pierce Leonard, who named the town on a summer day in 1864, after a hot and dusty ride from the [[Sacramento Valley]]; arriving at his sawmill while the staff were on break, Leonard "took a deep breath of the cool, clean air, and exclaimed, 'boys, this is ''paradise''.'"<ref name="Snopes-20130919"/> According to [[Snopes]], Sylva's explanation may be "pleasingly inventive historical fiction", and it is more likely that the town was named for it being a pleasant place to live.<ref name="Snopes-20130919"/>