Prairie City is a village in McDonough County, Illinois, United States.

[2] Prairie City is located in the northeast corner of McDonough County at 40°37′15″N 90°27′49″W / 40.62083°N 90.46361°W / 40.62083; -90.46361 (40.620740, -90.463582).

Illinois Route 41 passes through the village as East Main Street, leading northeast 8 miles (13 km) to St. Augustine and southwest 6 miles (10 km) to Bushnell.

Macomb, the McDonough county seat, is 21 miles (34 km) to the southwest.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Prairie City has a total area of 1.01 square miles (2.62 km2), all land.

From 1937 to 1950, Prairie City was home to the Decker Press, which in the mid-1940s was the largest publishing house in America devoted exclusively to putting out poetry.

The business was not financially successful, and its founder, Prairie City native James A. Decker, sold it to a local lumber dealer, Harry M. Denman, who in turn sold it several months later to Ervin Tax, a poet from Chicago.

Tax tried to make the business more efficient and profitable—buying new presses and binding equipment and hiring an artist, sales promoter and other employees.