Eagle River was the site of the first permanent Native American settlement in the Wisconsin Northwoods, located on the shores of Watersmeet Lake where the Wisconsin River and the Chain O′ Lakes meet. These early Indigenous people were referred to as the Old Copper Indians and were succeeded by the Woodland Indians from 2,600 B.C. to 800 A.D. These Indigenous people were probably the ancestors of the local Chippewa, Potawatomi and Menominee tribes.