Owatonna Wedding

Owatonna is a city in Steele County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 22,434 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Steele County6. Rice Lake State Park is nearby.

Owatonna was first settled in 1853 around the ironically named Straight River which is anything but straight. Local legend suggests that the name "Owatonna" is also an ironic name for the river, but the term "Ouitunya" (or straight) refers to the "morally strong traders" and not the rather whimsical and winding river.

In 1883, Owatonna was the site of the State Fair and soon the county established its own fair in Owatonna, the Steele County Free Fair or SCFF, the largest free fair in Minnesota.