Each year Forbes Magazine asks renowned travel writers to name the prettiest towns in America. Our home town, Hermann, Missouri was chosen for that list in 2011. That selection was the inspiration for this book and our forthcoming series addressing all of the prettiest towns in the country.

No one had to tell us that Hermann is one of the prettiest towns in the U.S. We had reached that conclusion on our own. We both had thousands of images of various aspects of Hermann. In this book we set out to tell the story of Hermann in pictures. As we proceeded with that endeavor, we confirmed our feeling that the town is much more than a place on a map or a location on Google Earth. Hermann is about the land that is farmed and the ‘Big Muddy’ Missouri River that has brought people and commerce to and from this place. It is about the grape farming and wine making that happen here. Hermann is about interesting architecture and the historical buildings too. Most importantly, Hermann is about the people that live here.

Just when we thought we had learned all we could about Hermann, it became our teacher and expanded our understanding in so many ways. We sincerely hope that this book gives you some of the pleasure we’ve had in putting it together.

Bill Fields and Tony Carosella
Hermann, Missouri