A butte overlooking the small town of the Willamette Valley, once known as Fillmore, then Frankfort, then Roy was at one time a center of worship for the Native Americans who called it Tap-a lama-ho, which means "the mount of communion". In 1881, Benedictine monks, looking for a suitable location to establish a new home in the west, arrived from Engelberg ("Angel Mountain") in Switzerland. After witnessing the beauty of the butte and the local area, they purchased the land and in 1883 established a school for boys and the Mt Angel Abbey.