Just between Interstate 84 and the Columbia River in northern Oregon is one of the area’s fastest-growing small cities. Hermiston is in a favorable location in the midst of fabulous landscapes. For thousands of years, the land Hermiston now sits on was home to native people like the Walla Walla and Umatilla tribes. In 1847, Catholic missionaries established a mission in Hermiston, introducing the locals to the ways of the European colonists. Hermiston slowly grew into a fledgling town, later incorporating in 1907. It is said that the town was named after the Weir of Hermiston, a novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.