Owatonna

Seat of Steele County, southeastern Minnesota, USA, on the Straight River, 24 km/15 mi south of Faribault; population (2000) 22,400. An agricultural centre, it is the trading, processing, and distribution point for local dairy and market garden produce. Cooperative creameries dominate the economy, and farm equipment, tools, and jewellery are manufactured. The town is also the headquarters of Federated Insurance. Settled in the 1850s as a trading post, Owatonna became the state's first health spa, owing to its numerous mineral springs.

Louis Sullivan, an early developer of the skyscraper, designed its National Farmers' Bank Building (1908).