The Potawatomi State Park Observation Tower, built in 1931, is significant for its association with outdoor recreation in Door County, including the development of Wisconsin State Parks in Door County and the county’s tourism industry. The wooden tower stands approximately 75 feet tall and has a square footprint, measuring roughly 24 feet from corner to corner along each side. The tower tapers inwards from the base, with the top platform measuring roughly 16 feet by 16 feet. The Potawatomi tower was intended to be a copy of Eagle Tower, a fire lookout tower built in 1914 at Peninsula State Park in Door County, but its design proved to be distinct from its fire tower antecedents.

As the first purpose-built recreational tower in a Wisconsin State Park, the Potawatomi Observation Tower, designed by prominent architect W. F. Stevens, was built with features not present on the fire lookout towers upon which its design was based. These design features include an easy-to-climb switchback staircase and wide viewing platforms. The distinctive design and form of this tower was then copied by subsequent recreational observation towers built in State Parks, Forests, and Recreational Areas throughout the rest of the state as late as 1988. Today the Potawatomi observation tower is closed and in need of repairs. Plans for a future Eagle Tower, to be its third incarnation, mark the beginning of a new era of observation tower design in Wisconsin.