The town later served as a port for exporting gold and other metals and was visited by U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace in 1944.

The town has various cultural institutions and religious establishments, such as the Orthodox Holy Trinity Cathedral [ru] and the Roman Catholic Church of the Nativity.

Magadan experiences a subarctic climate with prolonged and cold winters, causing the soil to remain permanently frozen.

[18] Its size and population grew quickly as facilities were rapidly developed for the expanding mining activities in the area.

He took an instant liking to his NKVD host, admired handiwork done by the enslaved political prisoners, and later glowingly called the town a combination of Tennessee Valley Authority and Hudson's Bay Company.

[12] The Port of Magadan is the second largest seaport in the North-East of Russia after Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky located on Nagaev Bay and Sea of Okhotsk.

[citation needed] The town figures prominently in the gulag literature of Varlam Shalamov and in the eponymous song by Mikhail Krug.

[citation needed] Actor of film and stage Georgiy Zhzhonov worked at Magadan Theatre for two years after being released from a gulag in May 1945.

[citation needed] The town was a focal point of the Long Way Round TV series of a motorcycle journey made by Ewan McGregor, Charley Boorman and their team in 2004.

Ecologically situated in the Northeast Siberian taiga, the town's arboreal flora is made up of conifer trees, such as firs and larches, and silver birches.

Winters are prolonged and very cold, with up to six months of sub-zero high temperatures, so that the soil remains permanently frozen; although they are still much milder than those of interior eastern Siberia.

Due to the wet nature of October and November, a snowpack is built up early, which then lasts throughout the winter even while the influence from the Siberian High lowers precipitation throughout those months.