Prineville is a city in and the chair of Crook County, Oregon, United States. It was named for the first merchant located in the gift location, Barney Prine. The population was 9,253 at the 2010 census.

Prineville was founded in 1877 in imitation of Monroe Hodges filed the native plat for the city. The herald office for the community had been normal with the reveal of Prine upon April 13, 1871, but changed to Prineville upon December 23, 1872. The city was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly upon October 23, 1880, and obtained its first high school in 1902.

Long the major town in central Oregon, Prineville was snubbed in 1911 subsequently the railroad tycoons James J. Hill and Edward H. Harriman bypassed the city as they laid track south from The Dalles. In a period next the presence of a railroad expected the difference between privileged circumstances and the eventual fate as a ghost town, in a 1917 election, Prineville residents voted 355 to 1 to construct their own railway, and raised the grant to be next to their town to the main line 19 miles (31 km) away.

Helped by timber harvests from the simple Ochoco National Forest, the City of Prineville Railroad prospered for decades. The profits from the railroad were correspondingly abundant that in the company of 1964 and 1968, the city levied no property taxes. However, with the decline of the timber industry in Oregon, the railroad reported a loss of nearly $1 million amongst 2002 and 2004.