Rice Lake State Park surrounds a shallow 750-acre lake east of Owatonna that owes its form to ancient limestone, glacial deposits, and a kettle left by retreating ice. Long notable as one of the few large lakes in southeast Minnesota, it supported wild rice that fed Native Americans and later gave the lake its name. A village founded there in 1854 declined after the railroad bypassed it, though its 1857 Methodist church survives. Later dams and dikes worsened stagnant conditions, and plans to remake the lake for boating and swimming never came to pass. Established in 1963, the park is now valued chiefly as wildlife habitat and a quiet destination for birdwatching, paddling, hiking, and skiing.