The park sits along top a long tall and narrow ridge of quartzite that rises from the relatively flat central Wisconsin plain.

Central 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."

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 mountain remained undeveloped until 1929 when a special committee of the local Chamber of Commerce spearheaded a drive to have a road built to the summit.

In July 1935, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was set up on the west bank of the Wisconsin River in the town of Rib Mountain.

The CCC created walking paths, widened the road, developed a campground and built a picnic area gazebo in the park.

Around the same time Chamber of Commerce leader, Walter Roehl, had convinced the Conservation Department that Rib Mountain would make a fine winter ski area and the CCC began work on clearing the slopes and installing a T-bar lift.