Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Services in Prairie City, OR

Prairie City is a city in Grant County, Oregon, incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on February 23, 1891.

Prairie City grew out of the former mining camp of Dixie, established in 1862 about three miles up Dixie Creek from the John Day River, and Prairie City at the mouth of the creek was chosen after placer mining rendered Dixie unsuitable for a townsite, with its post office established in 1870 under postmaster Jules Le Bret.

A narrow-gauge line, the Sumpter Valley Railway, ran 80 miles from Baker City west to Sumpter and on to its western terminus at Prairie City, which it reached in 1907, carrying passengers and freight for ranchers, mining interests, and timber companies until its piecemeal abandonment in the 1930s, and a heritage railway now operates on a segment of the original line between Sumpter and McEwen.

Prairie City lies in eastern Oregon at the upper end of the John Day River valley, about 13 miles east of John Day along U.S. Route 26 and about 50 miles southwest of Baker City, with Strawberry Mountain in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness of the Malheur National Forest directly south of the city.

As of the 2020 census, Prairie City had a population of 841, down from 909 in 2010.

The 2020 census counted 398 households in Prairie City, and the city's median age was 55.5 years, with 34.4 percent of residents aged 65 or older.

Prairie City's economy includes ranching, retail stores, a wood-fueled power plant, and public services, and Prairie Wood Products, a mill producing fine-grained studs from nearby timber, is in the city.

Prairie City School in Prairie City serves children from kindergarten through 12th grade.

Prairie City's architectural features include historic stone buildings and the former railway depot, whose ground floor held a waiting room, station agent's office, baggage room, and freight office, while its second floor, once the station agent's home, houses the Dewitt Museum with pioneer artifacts, tools, furniture, memorabilia, and rocks and minerals, and the depot was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Bates State Park, built on the site of a former lumber mill, lies northeast of Prairie City at Bates, near Austin Junction at the intersection of U.S. Route 26 and Oregon Route 7.