It is located in northwest Tennessee, 79 miles (127 km) northeast of Memphis on the Forked Deer River.

The lands composing the future Dyer County were then transferred, via the Jackson Purchase, to the US Government, and American settlers from the eastern states began moving into West Tennessee around 1819.

Alexander McCullouch, a War of 1812 veteran who served as aid-de-camp under John Coffee at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, moved his family in the late 1820s to a plantation west of Dyersburg from northern Alabama.

[11] Dyersburg's early development hinged on its strategic location as a hub for steamboat navigation on the Forked Deer River.

The success of the Grey Eagle's maiden voyage in 1836 solidified Dyersburg's status as a river town.

The county's first industrial boom commenced in 1879 with the shipment of timber from A. M. Stevens Lumber Company to St. Louis markets via steamboat.

On August 7, 1862, about 50 men of the 6th Illinois Cavalry Regiment attacked a group of Confederates about 5 miles east of Dyersburg.

Dodge also recommended burning the county as "They pay no attention to the oath, feed and guide the rebels."

"[12] On August 18, 1862, the 6th Illinois Cavalry Regiment attacked a small band of Confederates on the Obion River six miles from Dyersburg taking all their horses, arms, and ammunition.

Confederate soldiers from Dawson's Guerrilla Band spent the day skirmishing near the Forked Deer River bridge in Downtown Dyersburg with men from the Third Michigan Cavalry.

Near midnight, Union forces under the command of Colonel Oliver Wood of the 22nd Ohio Infantry Regiment located the rebel stronghold in a house near the bridge and "completely routed them [Confederates], killing 2, wounding 4, and capturing 17, when the rebels broke and fled in every direction.

"[14] Nathan Bedford Forrest and Robert V. Richardson occupied Dyersburg in August 1863, before retreating upon the arrival of Colonel Edward Hatch in the area.

[10] In 1916, Julius Morgan was convicted of raping Laura Sullivan of Dyersburg and became the first person to be executed by the electric chair in Tennessee.

[18] A black man named William Thomas was lynched on March 19, 1917, for allegedly shooting an officer.

[19] On December 2, 1917, a 24-year-old black farmhand named Lation (or Ligon) Scott[20] was brutally lynched by a white mob[21] before a crowd of eight thousand[22] people.

[23] He was then castrated, and more hot irons placed on his feet, back, and body until "a hideous stench of burning flesh filled the Sabbath air".

Nauseated, I broke through the crowd and rushed back to the railway station where I stretched out trembling, on the cold ground.

[28] In 1942, Dyersburg Army Air Base was established by the War Department to facilitate and support military bomber training.

[31] In 1965, the Illinois Central Railroad ceased providing passenger service to the town in Dyer County, including Dyersburg.

[32] During the Vietnam Conflict, Dyersburg native James A. Gardner posthumously won the Medal of Honor for his actions during Operation Van Buren.

[36] In June and July 2020, multiple peaceful demonstrations were held in downtown Dyersburg around the city's Confederate Statue.

[41] At one of the protests a speech was given about Lation Scott, a man who was brutally lynched in front of a crowd of thousands in the same court square over a hundred years prior.

[42] During one protest, participants were met by a group of counter-protesters concerned about the removal of Dyersburg's Confederate Statue, with some claiming the statue commemorates all Confederate soldiers in Tennessee including black ones, and claiming "Black men joined because of deprivations, like burning, raping and looting, committed by the Union".

USGS data shows an 18.28% chance of a major earthquake within 31 miles (50 km) of Dyersburg within the next 50 years.