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Owatonna is a city in Steele County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 25,599 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Steele County. Owatonna is home to the Steele County Fairgrounds, which hosts the Steele County Free Fair in August. Interstate 35 and U.S. Highways 14, and 218 are three of the main routes in the city. [edit] History
Owatonna was first settled in 1853 around the Straight River. The community was named after the Straight River, which in the Dakota language is Wakpá Owóthaŋna. A popular, but apocryphal, story is that the town is named after "Princess Owatonna", the daughter of local Native American Chief Wadena who was supposedly healed by a nearby spring's magic waters, which were said to be rich in iron and sulfur. The earliest the Owatonna area was settled was in 1854. It was platted in September 1855, incorporated as a town on August 9, 1858, and as a city on February 23, 1865.[1] In 1856, Josef Karel Kaplan emigrated from the village of Dlouhá Třebová, southeast of Prague, Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), and selected a quarter section of land near the town of Owatonna. Kaplan described Owatonna as having just 50 small homes, but predicted 100 within a year, along with a railroad. With just four stores and a pharmacy, Owatonna quickly prospered and grew to 1,500 inhabitants in just 5 years. Kaplan wrote about the Owatonna area in letters donated to the Minnesota Historical Society. In them, he described often seeing the indigenous people with "tough constitutions...brown skin and good dispositions", adding: "When you read about battles between whites and Indians, it is the whites who are to blame." In 1866, Kaplan helped organize the Catholic cemetery, and a year later, the Bohemian National Cemetery of Owatonna. Kaplan's Woods is part of the land originally owned by Josef Kaplan, and later Victor and Anna Kaplan. The State of Minnesota created Kaplan's Wood State Park, which was later transferred to the City of Owatonna. The Kaplan's Woods Parkway contains over of hiking and cross country skiing trails, and nearly of hard-surfaced, handicapped-accessible trail. The parkway includes Lake Kohlmier, a lake. The Minnesota State Public School for Dependent and Neglected Children was built in 1886. The school took in orphans from around the state and taught them "the value of drill, discipline, and labor." The children who died in the institution were interred in the Children's Cemetery behind the school. In 1945, the orphanage closed and in 1947 the State Public School was officially abolished and all its lands, buildings, property, and funds were transferred to the newly established the Owatonna State School, which provided academic and vocational training for the developmentally disabled. The Owatonna State School was closed June 30, 1970. In 1974, the City purchased the compound for its office space. Renamed "West Hills," it continues to serve as the City's administration complex and home to many nonprofit civic organizations including a senior activity center, the Owatonna Arts Center, two nonprofit daycare centers, a chemical dependency halfway house, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters, among others. In July 2008, a Raytheon Hawker 800 corporate jet crashed near Owatonna, resulting in eight deaths. On October 31, 2010, Owl City's Adam Young held a hometown concert in the Owatonna Senior High School gym. On November 3, 2015, the Owatonna Public School District passed a bond referendum to fund school facilities improvements focusing on deferred maintenance, safety, and Elementary school crowding. As a result, the school district received $77.9 million to repair all buildings, replace out-of-date equipment, update security in all seven public school buildings, switch the use for two school buildings, and reconfigure grades from K-5, 6, 7-8, 9-12 to K-5, 6-8, 9-12. All facility changes and projects were completed by September 2018. The Steele County Historical Society "preserves Steele County's past, shares the county's stories, and connects people with history in meaningful ways, for today and for tomorrow." Established in 1949 to preserve the history of Steele County, it has become one of the largest and most prestigious historical societies in the state. In 1962, the Society permanently leased part of the southeast section of the fairgrounds to begin a pioneer village, the Village of Yesteryear, which has grown in the years since through the additional move of historic structures, as well as museum buildings built on site. [edit] Research Tips
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