In 1881, J. J. Kennedy hauled sawmill machinery with oxen from the railroad at Chelsea to the bank of Rib Lake and built a sawmill called the Rib Lake Lumber Company. The next year a railroad spur was built to the mill from the Wisconsin Central Railway at Chelsea. The community was originally called Kennedy Mills. The original mill burned in about a year, (and possibly burned again in 1898) and was destroyed by another fire on July 23, 1914.
In 1891, Fayette Shaw started a tannery in Rib Lake, which used tannic acid from locally harvested hemlock bark to tan hides from as far away as South America to make leather. The tannery operated until 1923.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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