Hermiston, Oregon

Hermiston is a city in Umatilla County, Oregon, United States. Its population of 20,322 makes it the largest city in Eastern Oregon. Hermiston is the largest and fastest-growing city in the Hermiston-Pendleton Micropolitan Statistical Area, the eighth largest Core Based Statistical Area in Oregon with a combined population of 92,261 at the 2020 census. Hermiston sits near the junction of I-82 and I-84, and is 7 miles south of the Columbia River, the Washington state line, Lake Wallula, and the McNary Dam. The Hermiston area has become a hub for logistics and data center activity due to the proximity of the I-82 and I-84 interchange, Pacific Northwest fiber optic backbone, and low power costs.

History

The historic inhabitants of the area were the indigenous Umatilla, Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Columbia Indians, descendants of peoples who lived in this area for thousands of years. The earliest European settlers established a mission near Pendleton in 1847. The territorial government organized Umatilla County in 1862 from the larger Wasco County.
Hermiston's early development was plagued by rivalry between The Maxwell Land & Irrigation Company and developers Skinner & Newport, who both fought to establish their own town of Hermiston in the exact same spot, centrally located in the irrigation district along the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's main line. While Maxwell was able to secure the train depot on the West side of the tracks, initially naming it after themselves, Skinner & Newport filed their own Hermiston plat directly across the tracks in November 1904, beating the Maxwell Company's filing by two days. With neither side willing to cede to the other, two separate business districts formed on either side of the tracks, Hermiston Avenue on the West side and East Main street on the East side, defiantly placed one block off so they didn't align. Each district featured its own bank, hotel and mercantile but East Main street would eventually win out.
The rival developers eventually settled their differences and on July 10, 1907, the two towns were incorporated as a single Hermiston. Colonel J. F. McNaught, an early settler in the region, is credited with originally coming up with the Hermiston name, which was taken from Robert Louis Stevenson's unfinished novel Weir of Hermiston.
The greater Hermiston region began to see irrigated agriculture in 1908, with the completion of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's Umatilla Basin Project in the form of Cold Springs Reservoir. The region saw modest growth until the outbreak of World War II, when the Umatilla Army Depot was constructed, causing Hermiston's population to jump from 803 at the 1940 US Census to 3,804 in 1950. The region continued to experience modest growth for the next several decades until the 1970s, when low power costs coupled with the development of center-pivot irrigation resulted in a significant expansion in agricultural acreage put in to potato production. The expansion of potato production coincided with the development of large potato processing plants by Lamb-Weston and Simplot, focusing on frozen potato products. The associated economic development drove Hermiston's population to nearly double from 4,893 in 1970 to 9,408 by 1980. The 1990s brought additional large employment developments to the Hermiston region in the form of Two Rivers Correctional Institution, a Wal-Mart Distribution Center, expansion of the Union Pacific Hinkle Rail Yard, and beginning of the Umatilla Army Depot's Chemical Weapon Incineration process. The 2000s have seen continued growth and diversification of the regional economy as Hermiston has grown to a population of 19,354 at the 2020 Census and has become a regional center for commercial and professional services.
The city is also known for its Watermelons, which are part of its branding.

Economy

Retail

Hermiston serves as the retail and services center for much of western Umatilla County, as well as Morrow County and parts of Gilliam county. Hermiston's Local Trade Area, which describes the area where people will travel to purchase items on a weekly basis, stretches from Pendleton on the East, the Columbia River to the North, Heppner to the South, and Gilliam County to the West. There were 46,000 people living within Hermiston's Local Trade Area based on 2010 U.S. Census data. Despite a relatively robust local retail & services market, Hermiston experiences significant retail sales leakage to the Tri-Cities for items purchased on less than a weekly basis. The Tri-Cities, located approximately 30 minutes north of Hermiston in Washington, had a metro-area population of 275,740 as of April 1, 2014, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Washington.

Workforce

The Greater Hermiston area, which encompasses the Hermiston, Umatilla, Stanfield, & Echo zip codes, and equates to a less than 10-minute commuting distance, has seen strong job growth since 2012. The Hermiston area added 2,930 jobs from 2012 to 2022, which equates to 91% of all net job growth in Umatilla County over that time. More recently, Greater Hermiston accounted for 114% of Umatilla County job gains from 2019 to 2022 as a result of 1,121 jobs added compared to net losses of 74 and 48 jobs in Pendleton and Milton-Freewater respectively.
Hermiston has the largest 30-mile-radius workforce in Eastern Oregon. According to 2022 U.S. Census estimates, there were 144,664 people actively employed and living within a 30-mile radius of Hermiston; in comparison, there are 101,119 in the next-largest 30-mile regional Labor Shed in Bend. Hermiston-area employers benefit greatly from the proximity of the Tri-Cities in Washington which, based on light traffic, and easy freeway access, is approximately 30–35 minutes to the north of Hermiston. This proximity also allows dual-income households good access to employment opportunities for both wage earners.

Top employers

According to the City of Hermiston's 2022 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the area are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	Amazon Web Services	2,058
2	Good Shepherd Healthcare System	1,107
3	Wal-Mart Distribution Center	1,050
4	First Coast Security	1,000
5	Hermiston School District	623
6	Lamb Weston - Hermiston	545
7	Two Rivers Correctional Institution	440
8	Wal-Mart Supercenter	356
9	Union Pacific Railroad	300
10	Marlette Homes	300

Parks

The City of Hermiston Parks Department maintains 15 parks, 15 landscape areas, and 100-plus acres for the enjoyment of the community. In addition to the developed parks, the department also has 50 additional acres planned for future development. Recent major enhancements include the additions of Riverfront Park, the Oxbow Trail, and continual additions to the Hermiston Family Aquatic Center. Riverfront Park features 16 acres of open grassy areas alongside the Umatilla River, as well as nearly a mile of paved walking paths, with picnic shelters, restrooms, and fishing access. A 1.8-mile paved walking path, named the Oxbow Trail, was added in 2015 to connect Riverfront Park with the north side of town near Good Shepherd Medical Center. The Trail winds through protected wetland area for nearly the entirety of its length and also connects to Harrison Park.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, all land.
Distance to major cities:

Hermiston's recent population growth is due to its proximity to large cities in the Pacific Northwest and its location along two major freeways.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Hermiston has a steppe climate. This gives the area hot dry summers with high daytime temperatures which do cool considerably overnight, and relatively cold winters which typically yield several snow storms per year with relatively minimal accumulation. On June 29, 2021, a max temperature of was recorded in Hermiston, which is just one degree below the new all-time record high temperature for the State of Oregon, which was set at the nearby Pelton Dam, which is also in Jefferson County, on the same day.

Demographics

2023 Portland State University Estimates

Population Research Center provides the official annual population estimates for cities and counties to the State of Oregon for the purposes of state shared funding allocations. PSU's 2023 Certified Population Estimate for Hermiston was 20,322. Due to the PRC's more detailed analysis, these estimates have proven more accurate than the U.S. Census Bureau's annual estimates.

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, Hermiston had a population of 19,354. The count represented a gain of 2,609 residents since the 2010 census and surpassed the Census Bureau's 2019 estimate of 17,782, mirroring the way the 2010 tally exceeded the 2009 estimate.
The median age was 31.2 years, 30.3% of residents were under the age of 18, and 12.9% of residents were 65 years of age or older; for every 100 females there were 96.8 males, and among those age 18 and over there were 94.4 males for every 100 females.
99.2% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.8% lived in rural areas.
There were 6,656 households in Hermiston, of which 41.7% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 45.0% were married-couple households, 17.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 27.3% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 23.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 6,962 housing units, of which 4.4% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 54.8% were owner-occupied and 45.2% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6% and the rental vacancy rate was 3.4%.

Race	Number	Percent
White	10,876	56.2%
Black or African American	129	0.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native	304	1.6%
Asian	284	1.5%
Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander	62	0.3%
Some other race	4,392	22.7%
Two or more races	3,307	17.1%
Hispanic or Latino	8,555	44.2%