Local city information for Prineville, OR

Prineville is a city in and the county seat of Crook County, Oregon, United States. It was named for the first merchant located in the present location, Barney Prine. The population was 7,356 at the 2000 census, with an estimated population of 9,990 in 2006.

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 away.

Helped by timber harvests from the nearby Ochoco National Forest, the City of Prineville Railroad prospered for decades. The profits from the railroad were so abundant that between 1964 and 1968, the city levied no property taxes. However, with the decline of the timber industry in Oregon, the revenue from the railroad have vanished: in 2003, the railroad reported a loss of $400,000.

Les Schwab, a chain of tire stores based in Prineville, has been associated with the town since the company's founding in 1952. As of 2005, the Les Schwab Tire Center chain operates more than 390 stores in California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington, does more than $1.5 billion in sales each year, and, according to the AP, is the number two private tire retailer in the United States. The company announced December 12, 2006, that it would be moving the corporate headquarters to nearby Bend, where a growing number of its executives live, including Dick Borgman who became CEO on the same day. Journalist Mike Rogoway noted:

A decade ago, Schwab could have devastated Prineville by pulling out. Now, though, the city that suffered through the downturn in the wood products industry is enjoying an economic renaissance. Federal jobs with the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service help anchor the economy Scott Cooper, Crook County administrator, was quoted , while a housing boom and a growing tourism industry have diversified the area.

Prineville got its first Starbucks in 2006, and a plan was floated to reopen the city's long-shuttered movie theater. In December 2006, unemployment was 4.4 percent, the lowest since the 1960s.

Prineville is also the former home of the famous J. Oscar Olsen, renowned poet and entrepreneur.

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