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Srawberry
Homes and Real Estate for Sale in Arizona
Strawberry Arizona
The first thing you notice about the little town named Strawberry in
Northern Arizona are the pine forests that surround the town. The second
thing you notice is the size of the those Ponderosa pine trees. Because
Strawberry is surrounded by National Forest Preserve, the trees have had
time to grow and multiply from the time of the early settlers of this
majestic land.
No one knows the exact date of settlement of this small village that lies
beneath the famed Mogollon Rim; for that matter, Indians have lived near
here for centuries. The town itself is not incorporated, so technically, it
is not really a town. Because there is no real "town," there are no real
"taxes." That is just one of many of the perks this gracious place has to
offer.
Another perk is the fact that because the elevation is 6,047 feet, the
temperature stays moderate all year round. The hottest part of the summer,
with temperatures elsewhere of 95 degrees to 105 degrees, is only a mild
summer day in Strawberry; the temperature rarely rises above 85 degrees. In
winter, although snow is not uncommon, temperatures may rise that same day
to nearly 60 degrees. With the low humidity that is common throughout
Arizona, you may find yourself thinking that you have landed in Paradise.
A large draw to the area are the numerous lakes (7, to be exact) that lie on
top of the Mogollon Rim, making fishing and other recreational activities
available to vacationers. The Tonto Natural Bridge, approximately 10 miles
south of Strawberry, is another tourism attraction as one of the world's
only natural bridges.
Although the main sources of revenue come from the weekend and summer
visitors to the area, the year-round population of Strawberry and Pine (the
nearest town down the mountain) is about 3,600 people, according to 1993
estimates. That number swells in the summer months to almost 5,000 people.
Strawberry has some amenities, including a grocery market with "a little bit
of everything" and an array of motels and resturants. In Pine, there are
more businesses catering to the tourists and residents alike. For instance,
there are gas stations, real estate agencies, and a post office that Pine
and Strawberry share. And in the nearest "big" town, Payson, there are
medical facilities, a Wal-Mart, and numerous other places to shop and eat.
The history of Strawberry is a varied one. Indians such as the Tonto Apaches
and the Southeastern Yavapai inhabited the Strawberry area until the 1860's,
when the Civil War and increased armed soldiers in the area forced the
Indians to disperse. When these armies came through the area, General George
Crook in their lead, they blazed new trails and roads to an otherwise
uninhabited area.
Gold was discovered in the Strawberry area around 1875 and that began the
influx of settlers to the area. Mormon settlement began in 1878 and
continued until 1890. It was these first settlers that gave Strawberry its
colorful name, taken from the numerous wild strawberries that inhabited the
area. Because of the rough topography of the area, settlers found it almost
impossible to come from the north into Strawberry until around 1878.
Therefore, most settlement up to this time came from the south. After that,
new trails were pounded and settlement began to increase from the northern
reaches of the state.
Settlers to this new land found quickly that they had to become
self-sufficient to survive. To this end, they used the local streams to
provide power to saw mills and grist mills. They dug irrigation ditches to
water their crops in those very fertile valleys. They also grazed cattle to
earn money, a process which continued until 1905, when range management laws
stopped cattle grazing to protect the watershed of the area.
Most of Strawberry's settlers arrived in 1882. One such settler named
Charles C. Callaway exemplified the typical Strawberry settler. He arrived
from Missouri in 1882 to visit a friend who lived in Strawberry. While on
his way to his friend's house, he got lost and received directions from a
bearded stranger on a mule (later identified as General George Crook). Once
Charlie arrived in Strawberry and saw the beautiful pine trees and felt the
cool mountain air, he decided he couldn't leave.
Charlie became a cowboy and worked on various ranches in Strawberry Valley.
In 1885, he helped build the Strawberry schoolhouse, which still stands and
is now the oldest schoolhouse in Arizona. Also in that year, Charlie built
himself a cabin in Strawberry. It stands today as a memento of those pioneer
days. Although Charlie was a character (he regularly played practical jokes
on his friends), he did finally settle down and get married in 1888. The
union produced two daughters. Charles C. Callaway lived to the ripe old age
of 103, a true pioneer to the end.
That pioneering spirit lives on in the inhabitants of the modern-day
Strawberry. Most of the year-round residents have a fierce independence that
they fight to uphold. Most residents are transplants from other areas of the
country and have come to Strawberry for the freedoms and laid-back life it
gives them. That independence is what this country was built on and that is
what will keep this area strong in years to come.
So come visit us in Strawberry, Arizona
Pine Strawberry History & Geology
Introduction
For centuries if not millennia the area of Pine Strawberry Arizona has
provided safe haven for people who have chosen to call this area home.
Surrounded by the escarpment of the Mogollon Rim on the north and east and
accessibility from the south and west difficult, the people living here
preferred this area because it was off the typical trade route. It was out
of the way. For this reason Pine Strawberry retains much of its pristine
charm and beauty.
Natives
Little is know about the people that lived within the area of Pine
Strawberry in earliest times other than that there are ruins reported on
Hardscrabble Mesa (on private land). It is assumed these people were
related to the Mogollon culture the term generically given to the earliest
natives inhabiting this region more than 2,000 years ago. The Mogollon
culture is named after Juan Ignacio Flores Mogollon who performed most of
the early research on these people.
Around 300 BC there was a migration of native peoples into this area (Tonto
Basin) from the east (New Mexico). Although not known if there were any
settlements of these people in the Pine Strawberry area they certainly
came to this area for game and fishing and possibly other resources. These
people grew beans, corn and squash and produced pottery for the storage of
seeds. Implements were made of bone, stone, and wood, and hunting was
performed with bow, arrow and atlotl. Trade from this area was to the
south to the Salt River Valley. Both the southern Tonto Basin and the Salt
River Valley were major sites of native settlements. From 900 AD through
1100 AD the Mogollon people were making baskets, and growing and using
cotton for clothing. By 1500 AD the Mogollon people were assimilated by
neighboring peoples from the south (Hohokams) and east (Pueblos). The
blending of peoples in this area resulted in a native culture generally
referred to as Apache. The Apache were nomadic, preferring hunting over
cultivating. This was in contrast to the local Apache in the Payson area
who preferred gardening to hunting and were hence named the "Tonto" (a
term borrowed from the Spanish) by the surrounding natives because they
were different.
The White Man Cometh
After the Civil War the US military turned their attention to subjugating
the native populations throughout the US territories Arizona included. In
the 1870's the local Apaches were rounded up and moved to the San Carlos
reservation. This allowed European descendants to settle and become
entrenched in the natives homeland. In 1886 the guards were removed from
the reservation and the natives walked back to what was left of their
home. In more recent years a new reservation was established for the local
native peoples just south of Payson.
The first white settlers in the Pine Strawberry area arrived around 1866
They ran cattle, built cabins, raised corn for hogs, butchered and cured
the meat and sold it to military personnel in Camp Verde. In 1878 Mazatzal
City was founded near today's Doll Baby Ranch east of present day Payson
by Mormon settlers. Possibly because of poor resources or harassment from
natives these settlers eventually abandoned Mazatzal City and moved to the
Pine Strawberry area. These early settlers raised cattle and hogs, worked
a sawmill and gristmill; grew orchards, farmed and worked a dairy (Milk
Ranch Point). In 1883 a schoolhouse was built in Strawberry (the oldest in
Arizona). In the early to late 1880's Pine was probably the most populous
town in the Tonto Basin region and served as a religious and social center
for a 75 mile radius.
Today Pine and Strawberry continue to be out of the way and for this
reason attractive to many people. Although the sawmill and gristmill are
gone and cattle raising has disappeared there are now numerous gardens,
and remnants of orchards remain.
Geology
The Mogollon (MUGgy-own) Rim became established millions of years ago
before the Grand Canyon. It rises 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the central
highlands of Arizona below. It delineates the eastern boundary of the
Verde Valley and the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau. It was formed
primarily from erosional forces from an ancestor of the Verde River.
Colorado Plateau
The Colorado Plateau consists of a number of plateaus from 4,000 to 9,000
feet above sea level named for the great river that courses among them.
"Here on the Colorado Plateau a great block of the earth's crust has
remained coherent and recognizable through 600 million years and more,
while blocks around it have been tilted and squeezed and broken. The
difference between the Plateau and the Basin and Range deserts to the west
and south is not just in today's scenery. There seems to be some sort of
underlying difference here, a difference that has lasted through much of
earth history, as if the more or less circular patch of the earth's crust
that makes up the Plateau obeyed a different set of geologic rules. Below
the Plateau, the crust is thicker, and heat flow from the interior of the
earth is lower, than in surrounding regions. A belt of sporadic but minor
earthquakes runs along the Plateau's west boundary, a boundary that is
continuous in Utah with the western limit of the Wasatch_Rocky Mountain
system. And geologists have found that measurements of the earth's
magnetism and gravity change here, too. It is as if a raft, strong and
sturdy, floated in a sea of flotsam. The logs of the raft shift from time
to time, but it drifts on, retaining its identity through seas alternately
stormy and calm."
Tonto Natural Bridge
Touted as "the world's largest travertine arch bridge", this interesting
structure is 150 feet wide and sits 183 feet above Pine Creek. Underneath
the bridge, Pine Creek flows into a deep clear pool. There a several small
caves with stalactiites and stalagmites in the walls of the Bridge also
made of "travertine". [Travertine: A white or light colored limestone
usually hard and semi-crystalline, deposited from water holding lime in
solution.] For more information you can visit the Arizona State Park site
featuring the Tonto Natural Bridge.
The area surrounding Pine and Strawberry (both on the Mogollon Rim and
areas south), is peppered with extremely old lava flows and limestone much
of which carries marine fossils. Pine Creek canyon is one of the few south
draining canyons through the Mogollon Rim
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