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History · Owatonna Township

17% of Owatonna Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: 4 old photos and papers from 1870 on.

0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Owatonna Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Owatonna Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Owatonna Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Owatonna Township’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBird's eye view of Owatonna, Steele Cou…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Owatonna Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Owatonna Township.

Read it all →

Whites settled in the Owatonna area in 1853 around the Straight River. Most of the white settlers were Yankees from New England and Upstate New York. 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 Wabena 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.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Owatonna Township, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s–1900s4 items
Bird's eye view of Owatonna, Steele County, Minnesota 18701870Bird's eye view of Owatonna, Steele County, Minnesota…US 1900s Owatonna MN Farmers National Bank to New York Advertising Cover front1900sUS 1900s Owatonna MN Farmers National Bank to New Yor…Courthosue, Owatonna, Minn1907Courthosue, Owatonna, Minn1909postUniversalistChurchOwatonnaMN19091909postUniversalistChurchOwatonnaMN
1910s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today1 recent
Legendowatonna22005Legendowatonna2
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Bird's eye view of Owatonna, Steele County, Minnesota 1870
Retake this viewBird's eye view of Owatonna, Steele County, Minnesota 1870, 1870

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Owatonna Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Owatonna10 historic placesB+Somerset TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHavana TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townMeriden TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townClinton Falls Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Owatonna Township’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikidata (1), Wikipedia and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.