The only concentration of human habitation near the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument is Mitchell, a semi-ghost town 40 miles east of Prineville and two miles east of the turnoff for the Painted Hills section of the fossil beds. The main “town” of Mitchell lines up along the short stretch of old road signed as the “Business Loop,” just south of US-26, where the old-fashioned general store Wheeler County Mercantile captures the flavor of the 1870s. Mitchell also holds one of the more atmospheric old places to stay in this part of eastern Oregon, the Oregon Hotel ($45 and up; 541/462-3027) at 104 Main Street, with a comfy front porch, a resident border collie for company, and B&B rooms.
