Ottawa is a city located at the confluence of the navigable Illinois River and Fox River in LaSalle County, Illinois, USA. The Illinois river is a conduit for river barges and connects Lake Michigan at Chicago, to the Mississippi river, and North America's 25,000 mile river system. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 18,786. It is the county seat of LaSalle County and it is part of the Ottawa-Streator Micropolitan Statistical Area, which was the 259th-most populous area in the United States in 2007.

Ottawa was the site of the first of the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.

Because of numerous silica sand deposits (Ottawa sand was on board the ill-fated Columbia space shuttle for experimental purposes) Ottawa has been a major sand and glass center for more than 100 years. Transportation of the sand is facilitated by the navigable Illinois river and the Illinois Railway Ottawa Line. One of its largest employers is Pilkington Glass works, a successor to LOF (Libbey Owens Ford). Formerly concentrated in automotive glass, the plant now manufactures specialty glass and underwent a $50 million renovation in 2006. Ottawa sand continues to be extracted from several quarries in the area, and is recognized in glass-making and abrasives for its uniform granularity and characteristics.

Sabic recently purchased GE Plastics, a successor to Borg Warner automotive glass manufacture, operates a large plastics facility in Ottawa, and is a major employer.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottawa,_illinois