Prior to the late modern period the area was used for hunting and gathering by the Hän-speaking people of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and their forebears.

The current settlement was founded by Joseph Ladue and named in January 1897 after noted Canadian geologist George M. Dawson, who had explored and mapped the region in 1887.

The high price of gold has made modern placer mining operations profitable, and the growth of the tourism industry has encouraged the development of facilities.

[13] The City of Dawson and the nearby ghost town of Forty Mile are featured prominently in the novels and short stories of American author Jack London, including The Call of the Wild.

Other writers who lived in and wrote of Dawson City include Pierre Berton and the poet Robert Service.

[14][15] In 2023, the Dawson City townsite became part of the Tr’ondëk-Klondike UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its archaeological record highlighting the transformation of the site from predominantly Indigenous to predominantly European use, and the adaptations that the Indigenous people made in response to European colonialism.

Erosional remnants of lava flows form outcrops immediately north and west of Dawson City.

[citation needed] Gold mining started in 1896 with the Bonanza (Rabbit) Creek discovery by George Carmack, Tagish Charlie and Skookum Jim Mason (Keish).

[citation needed] Starting approximately 10 years later, large gold dredges began an industrial mining operation, scooping huge amounts of gold out of the creeks, and completely reworking the landscape, altering the locations of rivers and creeks and leaving tailing piles in their wake.

[citation needed] The last dredge shut down in 1966, and the hydroelectric facility, at North Fork, was closed when the City of Dawson declined an offer to purchase it.

[46] The Downtown Hotel at Second Avenue and Queen Street has garnered media attention for its unusual Sourtoe Cocktail, which features a real mummified human toe.

In addition to the fishing camp remains, the site includes traditional plant harvesting areas and lookout points.

Diamond Tooth Gertie's Gambling Hall puts on nightly vaudeville shows during tourist season, from May to September.

[51] Every February, Dawson City acts as the halfway mark for the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

Mushers entered in the event have a mandatory 36-hour layover in Dawson City while getting their rest and preparing for the second half of the world's toughest sled dog race.

Travelling to Ottawa by dog sled, ship, and train, the team lost the most lopsided series in Stanley Cup history, losing two games by the combined score of 32 to 4.

John Steins, a local artist and one of the leaders of the movement to restore democracy to Dawson, was acclaimed as mayor, while 13 residents ran for the four council seats.

Other past mayors of Dawson City have included Art Webster, Colin Mayes, Yolanda Burkhard, Mike Comadina and Vi Campbell.

[citation needed] As of the 2001 Municipal Act, the town's official legal name is now simply the "City of Dawson".

[1] The Yukon River is navigable (when not frozen) and historically was travelled by commercial riverboats to Whitehorse and downstream into Alaska and the Bering Sea.