The northern part of the town of Rib Lake lies within the Perkinstown terminal moraine, a line of hills bulldozed by the last glacier.

Most of the south-central part of the town has a soil called Merrill till which was laid down by a much earlier glacier, giving it time to flatten out.

[2][3] Most of the edges of the six by six squares that would become Rib Lake were surveyed in October 1861 by a crew working for the U.S. government.

In early 1862, the same crew marked all the section corners in the township, walking through the woods and swamps, measuring with chain and compass.

[8]Around 1873, the Wisconsin Central Railroad built its line just west of what would become Rib Lake, up through the forest that would become Medford and Westboro, heading for Ashland.

To finance this undertaking, the railroad was granted half the land for eighteen miles on either side of the track laid - generally the odd-numbered sections.

[11] In 1881 J.J. Kennedy started the sawmill at Rib Lake, which sawed lumber from the surrounding country, and which established the village.

[13] Later, hemlock bark from the surrounding forests was another important early product, supplying the tannery in Rib Lake.

Settlers' homesteads were sprinkled along all of these - thickest around the village of Rib Lake and none on the east end.

Rural schools were marked at the modern intersection of Berry and County C, at Fawn Ave and Peche, and at C and Trout.

Other large land-holders were Fayette Shaw of the tannery in Rib Lake, C. McCrossen in the northeast corner, and J.O.

This continued until 1948, feeding logs to the sawmill in Rib Lake and hemlock bark to the tannery.