![]() Many men in the community made it a point to climb to the top of the mountain at least once a year, probably just to prove that they could do it, according to a 1926 article in the Wausau Daily Record Herald. The club asked the Wisconsin Conservation Department (predecessor of the DNR) if Rib Mountain could become a state park and the department accepted a gift of 40 acres in 1923 with official park designation occurring in 1927. The club bought 120 acres of land at the top in 1922 and 40 more acres years later. The Wausau Kiwanis Club recognized the mountain's recreational potential. ![]() The two companies merged in 1905 to form Wausau Abrasives, which was purchased by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing in 1929. Two years later, in 1902, the Wausau Quartz Company was founded to crush the quartzite from the quarry for grinding and polishing purposes. The quarry proved to be commercially successful and in 1900 the Wausau Sandpaper Company was incorporated to use the quartzite from the quarry for the manufacture of sandpaper. In 1893 Jacob Kolter began quarrying the quartzite on the west side of the mountain for use in the manufacture of sandpaper. It was used as a lookout point and navigational landmark by both the Chippewa and early white explorers.Įarly settlers sought to make use of the mountains mineral resources, many prospected for gold, but were unsuccessful. The resulting quartzite is hard and much more resistant to erosion than the surrounding rock and over the following millennia the softer surrounding rock eroded away revealing the present day ridge.Ĭentral Wisconsin, where the park is located was once populated by the Chippewa, they referred to the ridge as O-pic-wun-a-se-be, sometimes given as "Opigigan" or "Opigeganama." The first part of the word meaning rib. The volcanic activity that resulted from the orogeny metamorphosed the sandstone into the present day quartzite. The quartzite ridge dates back to the Penokean orogeny ~1.8 billion years ago, before this the quartzite was a large sandstone deposit on the edge of a shallow sea. The park sits along top a long tall and narrow ridge of quartzite that rises from the relatively flat central Wisconsin plain. The park is ten miles (16 km) north-northwest of Central Wisconsin Airport. The park includes a ski resort, Granite Peak Ski Area, concession stand, picnic areas, a reservable amphitheater, a former quarry, observation tower, and 15.1 miles of trails. Rib Mountain State Park is a 1,528-acre (618 ha) Wisconsin state park near the city of Wausau. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
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