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Rice Lake

A boat sits along the wooded shore of Rice Lake. View the original source document: WHI 78294

Rice Lake is located in the Northwoods, about 48 miles northwest of Chippewa Falls, in Barron County. The Chippewa and other American Indian groups called the area home, trapping and gathering wild rice in the lakes and bogs until the 1880s.

Around 1867, John Knapp (1825-1888) bought acres of forest in the area that became part of property owned by the largest lumbering company in the world, Knapp, Stout & Co. The firm owned 115,000 acres and produced 90 million feet of cut lumber annually by 1880. By damming the Red Cedar River around 1870, the company created a lake for use as a holding pond. It also flooded the wild rice beds, which angered the Chippewa. To make amends, the lumber company agreed to bring them food, replacing their wild rice diet with one containing pork and flour.

The village was platted in 1870, 1875 and 1884 by Knapp, Stout & Co. They left a 100-foot wide thoroughfare that became Rice Lake’s business district.

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Logging Near Rice Lake, 1872

A group of men use a team of four horses to transport logs across snow-covered ground on a sled. View the original source document: WHI 78303

In 1882, harness maker August Ringling moved his family to Rice Lake. Four of his sons went on to form the Ringling Brothers Circus in Baraboo. Another group of Rice Lake brothers, the Shafers, formed their own circus around the same time.

Today, Rice Lake is a commercial and tourist center. Indian Mounds Park preserves twelve Indian mounds while the Bayfield Hiking Trail takes people near the ancient pipestone quarries, old rice beds and rice storage pits. Mt. Hardscrabble and Barron Blue Hills are other popular recreational sites.

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• Rice Lake, Wisconsin

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Source: WHS Library-Archives Staff, 2009