Prineville was once a bustling mill town, boasting five sawmills. Times have changed.

The big sawmills are all gone now, and the secondary product industry that has carried on — making doors, window frames and other wood products — just took a major blow. After a roof collapsed Nov. 14, Woodgrain Millwork laid off 130 workers, with 85 more jobs set to be gone by the end of the year.

“We are losing our mill-town status, that is for sure,” said Betty Roppe, Prineville’s mayor. “That’s been going on for sometime.”

Woodgrain Millwork, headquartered in Fruitland, Idaho, is the latest owner of the mill, which is on more than 50 acres at North Main Street and NE Peters Road in Prineville.

The location has been a mill site since the 1930s, with a sawmill in operation there for more than its first 15 years, according to records at the Bowman Museum in Prineville. Raw logs come into a sawmill, which cuts them into lumber such as 2x4s.

Originally called the Alexander-Yawkey mill, its name changed to Alexander-Stewart upon a change in ownership. Alexander-Stewart closed the big plant in 1959 after depleting its timber holdings and announcing it was not interested in trying to operate on logs brought from national forestland.

COIN Millwork opened a secondary product mill at the site in the 1960s, the predecessor to what became Woodgrain Millwork in recent years.

“The facilities are mainly from 1937 with some modifications,” said Steve Lent, historian at the Bowman Museum in Prineville.

City, county and economic development leaders have been meeting since the roof collapse to try to find ways to entice Woodgrain Millwork to rebuild, said Seth Crawford, a Crook County commissioner.

“Minus the damage, it is still a really good facility,” Crawford said.

Possibilities include tax incentives and low interest loans, but no specifics have been worked out.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com