Rib Mountain State Park

Rib Mountain State Park. . This park is located on the summit of Rib Mountain, one of the most prominent isolated hills in Wisconsin. Just as the stump covered field enables us to picture the forest that has long since been cut – so by the study of the old worn down stumps of mountains, the geologist is able to picture the mountains that once covered all of Wisconsin. During countless ages these mountains were gradually worn down to a plain. In a few places a harder ridge or peak called a monadnock still rises considerably higher than the general level of the plain. Rib Mountain, the highest rock hill in the state, is such a monadnock rising to a height of 1940 feet above the sea and nearly 800 feet above the Wisconsin River. , The rock was originally a sandstone that has been thoroughly cemented to form a hard glass like rock called quartzite. Ripple marked slabs indicate that the original constituents were loose sand washed by waves. The original sand stone bedding was horizontal. Later folding resulted in the present nearly vertical position of the quartzite beds. Rib Mountain is a monadnock which owes its superior elevation to the fact that it is composed of quartzite and was therefore suffered less erosion than the quartzite which surrounds it. The quartzite crags and the talus slopes indicate that the park was not glaciated.