Dryden is the second-largest city in the Kenora District of northwestern Ontario, Canada, located on Wabigoon Lake.

They used the shore by the Wabigoon River as a camping site, calling it Paawidigong ("the place of rapids" in Ojibwe).

While his train was stopped at what was then known as Barclay Tank to re-water, he noticed clover growing and decided to found an experimental farm the following year.

A paper mill was built in the town in 1910 because of the abundance of wood suitable for kraft pulping as well as energy from the Wabigoon River.

In the 1970s, it became known that the Dryden pulp and paper operations discharged ten tons of mercury directly into the Wabigoon River over a span of eight years.

[6][9][10][11][12] The town was also the site of the March 10, 1989 crash of Air Ontario Flight 1363 from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg, which killed 24 people.

[14][16] Dryden experiences a humid continental climate (Dfb) with short, warm summers, and long, cold winters.

[17] Compared to the rest of the province, the annual temperature range is wider and precipitation is more concentrated in the summer.

220 residents (2.9%) belonged to a visible minority group (i.e. people who are not Aboriginal and "non-Caucasian in race or non-white in colour").

During the 1960s and 70s, mercury poisoning from the mill caused one of Canada's worst environmental disasters: Dryden Chemicals Ltd dumped mercury into the English-Wabigoon River, upstream of Grassy Narrows First Nation, poisoning the fish which were their staple food.

[27] Members of the Grassy Narrows and the Whitedog communities downstream from the mill suffered severe mercury poisoning.

[28] The first iteration of the mill was initially built by Charles and Grant Gordon in 1909 on the west side of the Wabigoon River[29] From the early twentieth century to the twenty-first century, the forest industry has played a significant role in Dryden's economy.

[30] In 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Weyerhaeuser Company and Resolute Forest Products—previously known as Abitibi-Consolidated—are responsible for remediating the mercury contamination.

[31] The environmental poisoning continues to cause significant health problems for the First Nations communities downstream.

[31][32] The Government of Canada is building a $20 million clinic to treat the First Nations "suffering from mercury poisoning".

[33] Dryden is home to the 5.6-metre (18 ft) tall "Max the Moose" statue on the Trans-Canada Highway, which has been described as the "mascot" of the city.

The Dryden Community Band is a group of musicians who perform under conductor Ryan Graham.

[37] Federally, the city is part of the Kenora riding, which has been represented by Eric Melillo, a Conservative, since 2019.