People from all over have a love affair with Hermes’ Water, also known as Paradise Water, outside of Paradise. The natural water fountain has provided clean fresh water to passerby’s for close to 100 years with a lifespan as long as the railroad that caused its formation.
Mary Lou Hermes, who lives on the property with her daughter and son-in-law, knows the exact reason for the water’s popularity. “It’s popular because it tastes good,” say Hermes. “It’s not chlorinated. It’s really soft.”
This water pump, which sits right off of highway 200, one mile east of Paradise now sees daily use from a variety of people. Hermes even remembers a time during one winter when many Sanders County residents pipes froze, they would all take trips to the pump for their water.
The natural phenomenon all started with the railroad who built the syphon when they separated Norman Hermes’s grandfather’s farm on the north from their water supply of Kennedy Creek on the south.
The water is syphoned under the railroad to the pump, known as Hermes’s Water, and continues on down to the house.
The system has such natural water pressure that the Hermes’s house doesn’t use any pumps to get their water from point A to point B.
For the next 100 years the pump has been a popular resting spot for anyone looking to quench their thirst on highway 200. People from all over Western Montana have visited the site including Kalispell, Polson, Missoula and Ronan.