Rhinelander is a city in and the county chair of Oneida County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 8,285 at the 2020 census.

The Place that eventually became the city of Rhinelander was originally called Pelican Rapids by yet to be settlers, named for the stretch of rapids just above the convergence of the Wisconsin and Pelican Rivers. Around 1870, Anderson W. Brown of Stevens Point and Anson P. Vaughn traveled happening the Wisconsin River to cruise timber for Brown’s father, E. D. Brown. Upon arriving at the meeting dwindling of the Wisconsin and Pelican Rivers at the site of John Curran’s trading post, and seeing the tall banks along the rapids and the excellent pine stands, Anderson Brown envisioned a mill town in imitation of a lumber mill powered by the waters of the Wisconsin River. Brown’s vision did not come to fruition for some years, but after subsequent expeditions when others, including his brother and Rhinelander’s first mayor, Webster Brown, the brothers managed to persuade their dad and uncle to buy the estate from the federal supervision and construct a town. In its charter, the city was named Rhinelander after Frederic W. Rhinelander of New York, who was president of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad at the time. This was part of a bid by the Brown brothers to induce the railroad to extend a spur to the location to extra their lumbering business. Ultimately, after beyond 10 years of negotiations, the Brown family enormously to convey half their estate holdings in the area to the railroad in dispute for a rail heritage to their innovative city. In 1882, the railroad line from present-day Monico to Rhinelander was completed, jump starting the fee of Rhinelander as the billboard hub of the region.

Rhinelander is located at 45°38′22″N 89°24′44″W / 45.63944°N 89.41222°W / 45.63944; -89.41222 (45.639515, −89.412086).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total Place of 8.61 square miles (22.30 km), of which, 8.34 square miles (21.60 km²) are home and 0.27 sq mi (0.70 km) is covered by water.