Talk:Ottumwa, Iowa

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 * Can someone verify whether or not there is still a Hormel plant in Ottumwa, and if not, when it closed?--Hraefen 16:12, 1 February 2006 (UTC)


 * The Hormel plant is no longer in operation; it shut down in early 1986. Today, the building is home to Cargill Meat Solutions. --Mcmillin24 05:07, 5 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Thanks.--Hraefen 15:51, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Merged in some content from another article
I have merged in the Video Game Capital of the World section from another article which is (probably) going to be deleted. Feel free to keep it here, change it, delete it, whatever, I have no idea if it really belongs or not. --Xyzzyplugh 13:39, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

The list of radio stations reads like advertisements for the stations
"Iowa's Music Leader", etc. This is advertising. It's the slogans of the stations. I'm going to give it about a month, and if the slogans are not removed, then I'll remove them.

It's okay to just write KLEE- Country, for example. Just name the format. That's all that is needed. The radio stations' slogans is advertising. Slater79 (talk) 18:44, 31 May 2008 (UTC)

Hail To The Chief
Added a small section about President Obamas town hall meeting in Ottumwa on 4/27/10. As a historical footnote also mentioned an appearance by President Nixon during his term in office. If someone wishes to revise this or incorporate it elsewhere, feel free. Ottumwa really isnt my thing, just saw no one had added Obamas visit yet. Just my humble opine, but the whole history section could use some work. Seems incomplete and rather disjointed as written now. Perhaps expand more on the importance of industries like John Deere, the meat packers, etc. to Ottumwas growth over the decades. Sector001 (talk) 20:13, 29 April 2010 (UTC)

Consensus on Radar O'Reilly
Ok....can we all discuss and come to SOME agreement on whether or not Radar O'Reilly, the fictional character from MASH deserves some sort of mention on the Ottumwa wiki entry? A couple people have added him at various times only to have this WKHarrisJr dude revert them. I vote that even though a fictional person O'Reilly is indeed noteworthy enough to be included. 1) MASH is one of the most famous and long-running shows in tv history 2) O'Reillys hometown of Ottumwa is mentioned on many many occassions during the course of the shows run 3) Wikipedia has several other instances of a town or ships role in a work of fiction being included in the entry. For example: Harlan, Kentucky as a backdrop for the F/X Network series "Justified". Thus I find nothing wrong with the most recent addition by Snowman, as he clearly indicated O'Reilly was a fictional and not real character.  What say you everyone? Sector001 (talk) 20:22, 13 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Dude... I have to disagree vehemently. Just because other article include fictional characters associated with a town included as "notable" does not make it right. The better solution is to create a seperate section in the article titled "Ottumwa in popular culture" and include the Radar O'Riely reference there. (This is how fictional characters are handled in other articles about real-life places.) Any other pop culture references about Ottumwa could then be added in that section. (Did "Roseanne" ever include Ottumwa references?Wkharrisjr (talk) 22:35, 13 June 2010 (UTC) (aka "the dude")


 * Agreed. A subcategory of "Ottumwa in fiction & pop culture" would work better, and open up avenues to add other info. Thus, I've made it so. Sector001 (talk) 17:31, 14 June 2010 (UTC)


 * Yep, that is much more consistent with other entries. In hindsight, I guess I could have set up the subcategory myself instead of deleting the original entry.Wkharrisjr (talk) 17:32, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Ottumwa had a company inspect the sewer system in 2001.They were from Mn. What was the name and address of that company?

216.195.244.103 (talk) 20:35, 20 August 2010 (UTC) Uhhm...I suggest you try Ottumwa City Hall. This discussion page really isn't the place for that sort of query Sector001 (talk) 22:25, 20 August 2010 (UTC)

Changes to Media
Today I put all radio stations in an infobox. Some are licensed to other cities but have a significant signal and/or Arbitron ratings presence in the Ottumwa market. I'm sure there are several other stations that could be considered -- i.e. Des Moines stations, and KRXL, Kirksville MO. that have listeners, however at some point the list would become ridiculously long imho. Despite Slater79's objecions from May 2008 above, I've also included each stations slogan or nickname. It's commonly done on other Wikipedia articles so I don't see the big problem with it here. It's not advertising imho, it helps readers better identify the correct station. Sector001 (talk) 23:28, 26 February 2012 (UTC)

Leigh Michaels (aka Lee Ann Lemberger)?
I believe that the very popular romance fiction author, Leigh Michaels (aka Lee Ann Lemberger), lives in Ottumwa. I could be wrong about that, but if she does, she's probably more well known among her readers (and in many other languages) than, say, Tom Arnold or any of the other notables.68.56.248.192 (talk) 00:43, 23 April 2012 (UTC)

Notable residents
Stumbled across the fact that poet & author Katinka Loeser was born in Ottumwa and spent some of her early you there. She later was the wife of noted satirist Peter De Vries. She doesn't have a Wiki yet or I'd add her to the "notables" list already. Just wanted to throw her name out there in case someone else wanted to take on the project of creating a Wiki for her then adding her to the Ottumwa notables. Normally I'd do it myself, but I already have a huge backlog of articles I'm planning to create or expand. Have a great Wiki kind of day! Sector001 (talk) 17:53, 11 August 2012 (UTC) .... P.S. it would be cool if someone could also track down info on that romance novelist...Leigh Michaels...and if she really does have a connection to O-town.

Who do we consider "notable people"?
I happened upon the article for Alferd Packer, a confessed cannibal, and found he was "enlisted in Company L, 8th Iowa Cavalry Regiment at Ottumwa, Iowa" I wondered what we are setting as a threshold for our "notable people" section. Do we want to include someone like Packer whose personal article links back to our own even if the personal is only tangentially related to Ottumwa? I personally think the article should accumulate anyone notable enough to have their own page, however, I didn't want to summarily take it upon myself to add someone to the list without first getting some feedback.RedDarling (talk) 01:48, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Name Meaning and Change
I seem to remember being told once that "Ottumwa" has some meaning in language of the native people who previously occupied the territory. Maybe something to the effect of "Land of Crooked Waters." Does this sound familiar to anyone else? I could just be relying on folklore as well.

I tried to look it up on Ottumwa's city web page but the only name information available was that the community was formerly known as "Louisville." This could be history if someone thinks that section is lacking this fact. RedDarling (talk) 08:01, 1 February 2015 (UTC)

Added a section trying to address this concern. RedDarling Iowajason (talk) 02:59, 31 January 2021 (UTC)

Population "update" not sourced -- I removed
I went to this page today and happened upon an error. Someone had tacked this on to the opening paragraph of the article:

"Ottumwa, Iowa has 24,840 in 2013"

It had no space between the period before the previous sentence. It was a non-sequitur as it followed the sentence about the Des Moines river. It is not a sentence and although I know it refers to population, it is not clear and the information is not cited. I removed it because it looks bad and is not sourced. Please do not update the page unless you can do so in a way that adds to the value of the page and can be proved by a source. RedDarling (talk) 18:16, 8 February 2016 (UTC)