Grand Tower is a small community located on the banks of the Mississippi River just across from Tower Rock from which it gets its name. Tower Rock is a small landmark limestone island carved by the Mississippi River. The earliest European mention of this island is by French explorer Jacques Marquette who passed by the formation in 1673. The earliest inhabitants were a band of river pirates, who settled here after being driven off of Spanish soil west of the Mississippi River. This outlaw settlement was destroyed by the United States Army dragoons in 1803. On November 25, 1803 the Lewis and Clark Discovery Expedition passed by Tower Rock. A marker erected by the Illinois Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission can be found along the Grand Tower riverfront.

Early names for Grand Tower included  La Tour ("The Tower"), Jenkins Landing, Cochran's Woodyard Landing, and Evans' Landing. The town is partially built on an unusual limestone ridge that runs for about one-half mile along the eastern shore of the Mississippi River called the Devil's Backbone. In the late 1800s an iron foundry was built on the hillside on Devil’s Backbone. A two-story house of the superintendant of furnaces stood nearby. The house is gone today but the legend has it that the superintendant’s daughter haunts the site. Devil's Backbone Park is located at the northern edge of the community of Grand Tower. It offers RV camping, playgrounds, picnic facilities, and a shower house. Visitors interested in the history can visit the Mississippi River Museum and Interpretive Center. The museum is housed in an 1892 building overlooking the levee on Front Street. Exhibits in the new museum include steamboat models, buoys, carbon arc searchlight, radar unit, deck equipment, gauges, rudder, dishes, etc. Of special interest are artifacts salvaged from the Steamboat Golden Eagle, which sank at Grand Tower in 1947.