Town of Rib Falls, Marathon County, Wisconsin: Place Profile

No major employer located in the Town of Rib Falls was found in a primary source.

No newspaper of record for the town's notices was named in the sources read; agendas post at the Town Hall and online.

No hospital or clinic located in the town was confirmed from a source read this session.

The civic calendar includes the April annual meeting (April 15, 2026) and monthly board meetings; no community festival was confirmed.

The municipality is the Town of Rib Falls, a civil town in Marathon County, Wisconsin (Census county subdivision GEOID 5507367250).

Rib Falls is a town (civil town) governed by a chairman and two supervisors, not a city or village.

The civil town is distinct from Rib Falls the unincorporated community, a USGS-named populated place at 44.9711, -89.9037 that lies inside the town, and from Rib Lake in Taylor County and Rib Mountain near Wausau.

the Town of Rib Falls covers 35.165 square miles of land and 0.015 square miles of water.

the Town of Rib Falls's Census internal point is near 44.994858, -89.895575.

The 2020 Census counted 947 residents in the Town of Rib Falls.

The Wisconsin DOA estimates the Town of Rib Falls's population at 937 as of January 1, 2025.

The ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimate of the Town of Rib Falls's population is 1,024 (+/-119).

The ACS 2019-2023 median age in the Town of Rib Falls is 43.4 years (+/-3.3).

The ACS 2019-2023 median household income in the Town of Rib Falls is $100,208 (+/-$14,499).

The ACS 2019-2023 median value of owner-occupied homes in the Town of Rib Falls is $298,000 (+/-$22,511).

The town describes itself as a small rural township of about 1,000 people just north of Highway 29 and west of Highway 107, primarily agricultural with some smaller businesses and 44 miles of roads.

Jim Draeger is Town Chairman.

John Hummer and Randy Ross are Town Supervisors.

Alysia Seliger is Town Clerk (715-551-8118).

Torrie Socha is Town Treasurer.

Andy Johnson chairs the Planning Commission, with Chairman Jim Draeger as the Town Board representative.

The Town Board meets monthly at 6:00 p.m. at the Town Hall; in 2026 meetings fell on the second or third Tuesday, and the most recent listed meeting was Tuesday, September 15, 2026.

Agendas are posted at the Rib Falls Town Hall and on townofribfalls.com.

The Rib Falls Town Hall is at 232343 County Road S, Edgar, WI 54426 (phone 715-443-3553).

The town's official website is townofribfalls.com.

The town is under Marathon County zoning, and its Comprehensive Plan was adopted April 11, 2017.

The town has adopted an ATV/UTV ordinance, and complaints go to the Marathon County Sheriff's Department.

Townwide garbage is picked up weekly on Thursdays and recycling every other Thursday.

The town's 2026 general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Three school districts cover the town: Marathon City (about 63 percent of its area), Edgar (about 30 percent) and Athens (about 7 percent).

Marathon City School District (NCES 5508670) is a PK-12 district of 3 schools with 770 students in 2024-25.

Edgar School District (NCES 5504080) is a PK-12 district of 3 schools with 575 students in 2024-25, based at 203 E Birch St, Edgar.

Athens School District (NCES 5500570) is a PK-12 district of 4 schools with 417 students in 2024-25, based at 601 West Limits Road, Athens.

The town describes itself as primarily agricultural with some smaller businesses.

Marathon County had 3,436 business establishments and 65,770 paid employees in 2023, including 18,923 in manufacturing.

The Marathon City Fire Department is the primary fire and rescue provider for the Town of Rib Falls, and has provided emergency medical response since 1992.

Law enforcement complaints about ATV and UTV use go to the Marathon County Sheriff's Department (715-261-1200).

No public library outlet is listed in the Town of Rib Falls; the nearest Marathon County Public Library branches are in Edgar and Marathon.

The Town Hall uses an Edgar, WI 54426 address.

Rib Falls Lions Park is pictured and named in the town website's photo gallery.

The Big Rib River runs through the town; the 1913 county history places the falls and the Baesemann mills on the river, which it calls the Rib River.

The town publishes an ATV/UTV trail map for routes under its ordinance.

Rib Falls was organized as a separate town in the spring of 1877, when it was set off from the town of Stettin, and John Baesemann was elected its first chairman.

John Baesemann, a blacksmith from Germantown in Washington County, finished a dam at the falls in 1867, started a sawmill in 1869, and had a grist mill running in 1876.

In 1906 the Wausau Lumber Company built a saw and planing mill on the south bank of the Rib River at the falls.

By 1913 the town had one cheese factory, six school districts and four churches, three of them German Evangelical Lutheran.

The community of Rib Falls was named for the river, whose name is an English translation of the Ojibwe name O-pik-wun-a Se-be.

The Rib Falls community sits on the Big Rib River at the junction of County Highways S and U, about 4.5 miles northwest of Marathon City.