Eagle River is a city in Vilas County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,398 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Vilas County. Because of the many lakes in the area, the city is a popular vacation and retirement destination. The Place contains many condominiums, seasonal trip homes, and hunting cabins.

Eagle River was the site of the first long-lasting Indian settlement in the Wisconsin Northwoods, located upon the shores of Watersmeet Lake where the Wisconsin River and Chain O’ Lakes meet. These in advance Indians, who were called Old Copper Indians, were succeeded by the Woodland Indians from 2,600 B.C. to 800 A.D. These Indians were probably the ancestors of the Chippewa, Potawatomi, and Menominee.

The first recorded white settler in what became Vilas County was a man named Ashman who standard a trading make known in Lac du Flambeau in 1818. Eagle River’s say was derived from the abundance of eagles nesting along the river. It is believed that Bethuel Draper and “Dutch Pete” Cramer camped in the Place in 1853 and were held responsible for naming the community. A deal grew as extra families arranged in the Place in 1857. The town of Eagle River was created by an raid of the allow in legislature in 1885. Vilas County was set off from Oneida County upon April 12, 1893 and named for William Freeman Vilas, a migrant from Vermont. Vilas had served for Wisconsin in the United States Senate from 1891 to 1897. In the 1850s migrants from New England, primarily from Vermont and Connecticut, constructed a number of wagon roads and trails through Vilas County including the Ontonogan Mail Trail and a Military Road from Fort Howard to Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor, Michigan.

Eagle River is located in southeastern Vilas County at 45°55′12″N 89°15′1″W / 45.92000°N 89.25028°W / 45.92000; -89.25028 (45.919902, -89.250210), along the Eagle River, which is ration of a popular chain of lakes. The Eagle River/Three Lakes Chain of Lakes is made occurring of 28 lakes, which is the largest number of inland interconnecting lakes in the world.