Strawberry was a Wild West-era resort town in Montrose County, Colorado, located in the forested Big Valley region, southeast of Mount Shann, and along Hawks Eye Creek. Strawberry was founded as a small logging town, but it grew during the late 19th century as sluices were built and the town's gold mining industry exploded. Its mayor, Nicholas Timmins, sought to transform Strawberry into a resort town during the late 1890s, but locals opposed his plans to turn Strawberry into a cultural beacon for wealthy tourists. In 1899, Strawberry was the site of a major shootout between Sheriff Robert Hanley and the law and the outlaws Arthur Morgan and Micah Bell, the latter of whom escaped from the town's jail with Morgan's help. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Strawberry's politics were decidedly Republican, and it was a dry town (although the general store owner ran an illegal moonshine business in his basement) and became a hub of business in the sparsely-populated Big Valley region, as local ranchers travelled to the settlement to sell their farm products and purchase goods from the town's stores.
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