What to do in Prineville, Oregon

Prineville is a small town located in Oregon. Prineville has an elevation of 2,078 feet and sits at the base of Prineville Butte. Prineville was originally settled as a gold mining camp in 1881, but it declined when the mines were all played out by 1890. In 1919 Prineville became home to one of Oregon’s first hydroelectric plants. It wasn’t until 1951 that Prineville began to grow again as loggers moved into the area for access to timber in the nearby mountains. Today Prineville, Oregon is a great place to visit with many cool things to do. Information can be found here.

There are six historic buildings that you can tour to learn about Prineville’s rich mining history such as Tipton Hall which was once a law school and is now used for community events, or Gold Bond Building which housed the post office before it moved into its current building next door. You can take guided driving tours through town with an experienced guide who will point out many places where these mines were found during their time here more than 100 years ago. There are museums dedicated to those miners such as The Old Miner’s Museum, with its exhibits and artifacts from Prineville’s mining past. See here for information about Discover the Enchanting Views of Powell Butte, Oregon.

You can also visit the nearby Newberry National Volcanic Monument that encompasses more than 100 thousand acres of land where you will find lava flows, cinder cone volcanoes, obsidian outcroppings as well as a golf course at Prineville’s Pinebrook Country Club. Visitors are welcome into this scenic area for free but there is an entrance fee to explore areas like Lava Butte which has paved trails leading around it and up close cliff faces for visitors to see the black rock formations in person or walk along miles of hiking paths through old volcanic fields dotted with steaming vents in some spots.