Formed October 24, 1882 (25th county)
Crook County (24,735), Prineville (10,731)
The pleasant 1909 stone Neo-Classical Revival structure is sited on 3rd Street at Court Street. United States Highway 26 is 3rd Street in this part of town. Walter D. Pugh is the building designer. It features balconies and ivy. A fountain and memorial eternal flame sit on the grounds. Crook County was created on October 24, 1882 from Wasco County with Prineville as the only county seat. It was the 25th county. There were 1882 and 1885 courthouses earlier. The county is named for Civil War hero George Crook. The county seat is named for settler Barney Prine.
Crook County government consists of a treasurer, a sheriff, an attorney, an administrator, and a clerk (executive). It has 3 Commissioners (legislative.) Two District Court Judges serve Crook and Jefferson counties (judicial.) The county is in the central part of the state. The geographical center of Oregon is 25 miles south-southeast of Prineville in the county. Portland, Oregon is northwest and Eugene, Oregon is west of the county. The county center is 46.6 miles East-Southeast of Prineville nearer Paulina. The county is surrounded clockwise by Wheeler, Grant, Harney, Deschutes, and Jefferson counties.
The area of the county is 2980 square miles. It is 12 out of 36 in the state. It ranks 24 out of 36 in population in the state. It has a density of 8.3 persons per square mile making it 26 out of 36 in the state. Crook County has 43.4% of its population in its incorporated areas. United States Highway 26 enters the county from the north, Jefferson County, and exits to the east, Wheeler County. The county is a multi-level pistol pointing west. Prineville is in the northwest quarter of the county. Prineville is the county seat and, as the only incorporated city, it is the largest city. It is 43.4% of the county population. This county is in the Prineville Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Prineville
