Rice Lake

History

American Indians lived around Rice Lake for millennia, some of whom made mounds like those that remain in Indian Mounds Park along the shore of the lake. In later years before white settlers, Ojibwe (Chippewa) people occupied the area, and they had a strong cultural attachment to the wild rice that grew on the lake. In the mid-1860s Knapp, Stout & Co., the growing lumber company downstream at Menomonie, bought tracts of forest around Rice Lake. Around 1868 the company started a logging camp in the area and in 1870 the company dammed the Red Cedar to raise the level of Rice Lake to make a better holding pond for their logs. The higher water disrupted the existing wild rice beds, angering the Ojibwe. As compensation, Knapp-Stout gave them food, but it was settlers' food like pork and flour - not wild rice. Knapp-Stout platted the village in 1870, naming it for the lake, and naming many streets after officers of the company, including Knapp, Stout, Tainter and Wilson. The company built a small water-powered sawmill for sawing local lumber and a gristmill. Permanent settlers began arriving about that time. The first houses were built around 1874. Saloons and hotels followed. Many employees of the early Knapp-Stout were Norwegian and in 1875 a Norwegian Lutheran congregation was organized. A local brewery was also started in 1875. Episcopalian families began worshiping intermittently in 1879. Roman Catholics began meeting the following year, building a church the same year - the first brick building in the village. Knapp-Stout added a flour mill in 1879. A Methodist Episcopal congregation also formed in 1880, and a Presbyterian congregation in 1882. In 1882 the first railroad reached Rice Lake - the Chippewa Falls and Northern Railroad, and the four-year high school was…

Geography

Rice Lake is located at (45.498408, -91.738844). According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. Rice Lake is along the Red Cedar River.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Rice Lake High
  High · Rice Lake · 714 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Rice Lake Middle
  Middle · Rice Lake · 601 students · 11.3:1 ratio
• Tainter Elementary
  Elementary · Rice Lake · 481 students · 10.9:1 ratio
• Cameron Elementary
  Elementary · Cameron · 422 students · 14.1:1 ratio
• Cameron Middle
  Middle · Cameron · 330 students · 15:1 ratio
• Riverview Middle
  Middle · Barron · 317 students · 15.1:1 ratio
• Woodland Elementary
  Elementary · Barron · 317 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• Barron High
  High · Barron · 316 students · 11.7:1 ratio