|
|
Rice Lake was known by that name well before construction of a dam by Knapp-Stout Co. in 1864. The name came primarily from the rich and abundant rice beds that once filled the watery lowlands near the present Lakeview Medical Center.
The K-S Company, once the largest logging firm in the world, cleared the pine and hardwoods from Barron County beginning in 1848 and reached the Rice Lake area in the early 1860s. For two years in a row a very light snowfall in the winter left the rivers and streams nearly dry in the spring and the company was unable to float the logs down to the mills. That prompted the construction of the dam in 1864.
The company then built a sawmill adjacent to the dam in 1871 and opened a company store under the direction of M.W. Heller who also became the first permanent resident.
|
|
The mill and store were followed quickly by a hotel and blacksmith shop, making the community the center for the northern operations of Knapp-Stout until the stands of white pines in this area were exhausted.
Knapp-Stout also created the first plat of the city in 1875 in the downtown business district, providing a 100- foot wide street which ran north and south along an early wagon trail and stage-coach line from Menomonie.
Dr. E.T. Whinery was the city’s first doctor, coming in 1872, and also was the first postmaster when regular mail service was provided by stage from Menomonie and Chippewa Falls beginning in 1874.
The Chronotype, first newspaper in Barron County, began in Rice Lake September 8, 1874 with C.W. Carpenter as editor. The first school opened the same year with Miss Monona Cheney as the teacher. The first recognized high school was a building constructed by Knapp-Stout in 1890 on West Messenger Street just off Main and was originally intended to be the county courthouse. The building served as the high school until Washington High School was built on Wilson Avenue in 1906.
The old high school then became the Barron County Teachers Training School, later known as the Barron County Normal School. That operated until 1960 with the last class graduating in the spring of 1961. The Normal School was replaced by the County Teachers College on Ann St., which opened in the fall of 1961 and the Normal School was torn down.
|
|
The Vocational school (now Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College) was established in 1940 on East Messenger St., and later moved to Wilson Avenue in what is now the Safety Building. In the late 1970’s a new campus for WITC was built adjacent to the UW-Barron County Campus on the south side. Today UW Barron County has 300 fulltime students and 320 parttime students while WITC has well over 1,200 credit students and over 3,000 non credit students.. The two campuses share a number of services.
In 1882 the Chippewa Falls and Northern Railroad built a track through the city and the following year track was laid for the Rice Lake, Dallas and Menomonie Railway. Eventually that line reached from Ridgeland through Rice Lake to the timber areas northeastward into Sawyer County and later became part of the Soo Line System.
|
|
|
|
The Barron County Bank, the first in the county, was opened in Rice Lake in 1882 and the Bank of Rice Lake, now the U.S. Bank, was established in 1888.
The first city library opened in 1896 in the same structure on Messenger that also housed the high school. In 1905 it moved to the building financed by the Carnegie Foundation at Main and Messenger. The library moved to its present location at Main and Marshall in 1978 after it was determined it was not feasible to renovate the former structure, which was demolished in 1985.
|
|
Rice Lake is located in Barron County in northwestern Wisconsin, serving as the primary retail trade center for an estimated 110-120,000 shoppers from a 60+ mile radius. It is the largest community between Eau Claire and Superior and from the Twin Cities and Rhinelander. The downtown area, given a fresh look in 1970 by the Modern Main Project, is still a viable shopping center despite, and probably because of, the arrival of the shopping mall concept in 1976 and other “Big Boxes” including Wal-mart, because they also brought Rice Lake hundreds of new shoppers.
The Rice Lake area is noted for fishing, golfing, hunting, skiing and Christie Mountain east of the city, and a variety of other sports. There are some 18 community in the city, including fastpitch, slowpitch fields, touch football, skateboarding and simply places to relax and hold picnics.
Turtleback Golf Course is an 18-hole course at the west edge of the city and the famed Tagalong course in some 15 miles north. There are nearly a dozen other smaller courses for golfers of all ages. Boy Scouts come from far and wide to Camp Phillips and nearby Haugen and there are several amateur theatrical groups hosting productions in Rice Lake and surrounding areas almost year around.
A modern airport opened in 1995 five miles south of the city and features a primary runway of 6,700 feet and the latest ILS landing system.
Rice Lake also boasts a modern 75-bed hospital, Lakeview Medical Center, which opened in 1978, replacing the Lakeside Methodist Hospital. The City is also served by Marshfield Clinic and several private doctors. A new Veterans Clinic opened in 2007 and a new state-of-the-art Marshfield Clinic will open in May of 2008. In addition there are several assisted living facilities and two convalescent homes.
|
|  |
