Prineville Wedding

The city of Prineville is the county seat of Crook County, Oregon, United StatesGR6. It was named for the first merchant located in the present location, Barney Prine. The population was 7,356 at the 2000 census.

Prineville was founded in 1877 when Monroe Hodges filed the original plat for the city. The post office for the community had been established with the name of Prine in April 13, 1871, but changed to Prineville on December 23, 1872. The city incorporated in 1880, and obtained its first high school in 1902.

Long the major town in central Oregon, Prineville was snubbed in 1911 when the railroad tycoons James J. Hill and Edward H. Hillman bypassed the city as they laid track south from The Dalles. In a period when the presence of a railroad meant the difference between prosperity and the eventual fate as a ghost town, in a 1917 election, Prineville residents voted 355 to 1 to build their own railway, and raised the money to connect their town to the main line 19 miles away.