Location
Owanka is in Murray County OWANKA, a Dakota word, meaning a camping place, is the name of grounds platted for summer homes in Shetek Township on and near the northeastern shore of Lake Shetek. A part in the southwest quarter of section 29 had been earlier named Tepeeota, meaning a place of Dakota tents or tepees. About a mile southward, in the center and southwest part of section 32, the high shore is called "Ball's bluff," for Ezra Ball, a pioneer settler there, on whose land a party of state cavalrymen camped as rangers through this region after the Dakota War in 1862. A village in section 30 had a post office, 1900-1902. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
