- Rib Mountain
Rib Mountain (also known as Rib Hill and currently Granite Peak) is a glacially-eroded
monadnock in centralWisconsin , located in the Town of Rib Mountain in Marathon County. Composed ofquartzite covered with a softersyenite sheath, it was intruded about 1.5 billion years ago.Rib Mountain is at coor dms|44|55|15|N|89|41|40|W|, near Wausau on the west side of the
Wisconsin River , just west of Interstate 39 and just south of Highway 29.Although Rib Mountain is not the highest point in Wisconsin and not technically even a
mountain , it is almost 4 miles long and peaks at 1924 feet above sea level and 760 feet above the local terrain, the highest difference of height from peak to surrounding terrain in the state ofWisconsin .Rib Mountain is home to the
Rib Mountain State Park and theGranite Peak Ski Area (formerly Rib Mountain Ski Area). The peak is also the site of many of the transmitters for radio and TV stations in the Wausau area, and is the namesake forWisconsin Public Television 's WHRM-TV (Channel 20).Local legend states that the 'ribs' in Rib Mountain come from the fact that it is the burial site of
Paul Bunyan . Furthermore, nearby Mosinee Hill is said to be the grave ofBabe the Blue Ox .When the ski area opened on the slopes of Rib Mountain 1937, it was one of the first ski areas in North America. Stowe in Vermont had opened a few years earlier in 1934. Sun Valley in Idaho had become the nation's first ski area in the western states in 1936.
External links
* [http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/parks/specific/ribmt Rib Mountain State Park]
* [http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/geolwisc/geostops/RibMtn.HTM Rib Mountain, Wisconsin-the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay]
* [http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/ribmtn/ribmtn.htm A Geological History of Rib Mountain].
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