At the time of the settlement by the whites the aboriginal inhabitants of the Four-Lakes region were the Winnebago.
The city has a Memorial Hall, erected in honour of the soldiers and sailors of Winnebago county, and in charge of the Grand Army of the Republic; a soldiers' memorial fountain; a Carnegie library, containing 51,340 volumes in 1909; and the Velie Museum of natural history.
Other higher educational institutions in Minnesota are Hamline University (Methodist Episcopal), with a college of liberal arts at St Paul, and a college of medicine at Minneapolis; Macalester College (Presbyterian) at St Paul; Augsburg Seminary (Lutheran) at Minneapolis; Carleton College (non-sectarian, founded in 1866) and St Olaf College (Lutheran, founded in 1874) at Northfield; Gustavus Adolphus College (Lutheran) at St Peter; Parker College (Free Baptist, 1888) at Winnebago City; St John's University (Roman Catholic) at Collegeville, Stearns county; and Albert Lea College for women (Presbyterian, founded 1884) at Albert Lea.
The name Iowa (meaning "sleepy ones") was taken from a tribe of Siouan Indians (probably of Winnebago stock), which for some time had dwelt in that part of the country and were still there when the first white men came - the Frenchmen,.
In1699-1700Father St Cosme, a Recollet friar, was here, finding bands of Mascoutens, Fox, Winnebago and Potawatomi.