A huge bald eagle “hovering and curving over a large mound” east of here inspired prospectors to name the area Eagle in 1836. The Village of Eagle was platted with the coming of the Milwaukee and Mississippi Railroad in 1851 by Kline, Pitman, and Sprague, and business houses, schools, and a church sprang up at Eagle Center. By 1880 Eagle ranked third in commercial importance in the county, with two drygoods stores, two clothing and tailor shops, two hardware stores, the Lins butcher shop, Bevins grocery and harness shop, a millinery shop, three saloons, a 15,000 bushel capacity elevator and warehouse, Klines's Hotel, a three story school house, and a Methodist Church. Its biggest sensation came with the 1876 discovery of a 16-karat diamond in Tom Devdreaux' well. After many lawsuits, fake mines, and several years at Tiffany's in New York, the stone, still uncut, was displayed at the American Museum of Natural History until 1964, when it was stolen and never recovered. The hill here was renamed Diamond Hill, and a surveyor's benchmark marks the site of the first depot that gave birth to Eagle.