Grand Tower is a city in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 605 at the 2010 census. The town gets its name from Tower Rock, a landmark island in the Mississippi River. History Former names of this town include La Tour ("The Tower"), Jenkins Landing, Cochran's Woodyard Landing, and Evans' Landing. The earliest inhabitants were a band of river pirates, who settled here after being driven off Spanish soil west of the Mississippi River, near the pirate ambush spot of Tower Rock. This outlaw settlement was destroyed by the United States Army dragoons in 1803. A subsequent settler was a man named Walker, who is the namesake of Walker Hill. Severe flooding struck the town in 1947. Geography Grand Tower is located in southwestern Jackson County at (37.632599, -89.501944). The city is bordered to the west by the Mississippi River, which forms the Missouri–Illinois boundary. The northern edge of the city borders Shawnee National Forest. Illinois Route 3 runs through an eastern extension of the city limits, leading north (upriver) to Chester, where the Chester Bridge crosses the Mississippi, and south to Illinois Route 146, which crosses the Mississippi to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. There are no other road bridges over the Mississippi closer to Grand Tower. According to the 2010 census, Grand Tower has a total area of , of which (or 99.76%) is land and (or 0.24%) is water. Immediately to the south of the city is a small portion of Perry County, Missouri, which is known as "Grand Tower Island". The island's sole road connection terminates in Grand Tower. The Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge connects a natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River between Wittenberg, Missouri and Grand Tower. Economy The Grand Tower Energy Center is a 478 megawatt combined cycle gas-fired facility which produces power for the region. It is owned by Ameren Energy Generating Company, or Genco. Community Shawnee Elementary School, North - Once a public school, now (since 2015) a private residence. A local post office with zip code 62942 provides mail service. Four churches, the First United Presbyterian Church, the Grand Tower United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, and Light House Christian Assembly Church offer religious services. A work of levees protects the community from flooding when the Mississippi River water levels rise. The Devil's Backbone Park, named after a limestone ridge which created a natural bottleneck in the Mississippi River, provided