Launching Soon · A Field Guide

Where the Ochocos Begin

A new dispatch from Prineville, Oregon — the oldest town in Central Oregon, the seat of Crook County, the rockhound capital of the West.

Photo: benjamin lehman / Unsplash
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A Crook County Dispatch

Look down, then look up.

There's a reason they call it the rockhound capital. The Ochoco hills hide thundereggs, agates, and Oregon's state stone — and the locals will still tell you where to dig.

Prineville is the town the rest of Central Oregon grew up around. Older than Bend by twenty years. Surrounded by a national forest most people drive past on the way somewhere else. Home to a working rodeo, the Crooked River, a reservoir, and — somewhere along the way — half the data centers powering your phone.

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Late afternoon sun cutting through a stand of ponderosa pine — the heart of the Ochocos
i.

The Ochocos

800,000 acres of national forest east of town — meadow camps, alpine lakes, and fewer cars than you'd believe.

Photo: benjamin lehman / Unsplash

A river bending through a high-desert valley — the Crooked River cuts the same shape
ii.

The Crooked

Tail-water trout, basalt canyons, and reservoir mornings. The Crooked River runs through Prineville's whole story.

Photo: Jonathan Simcoe / Unsplash

Mule deer grazing beneath a rimrock cliff — the daily traffic in Crook County
iii.

The Town

A 150-year-old main street with a working rodeo, a courthouse, and a quiet Western pace the rest of Central Oregon traded away.

Photo: Emma Swoboda / Unsplash

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