The city is named after Guillermo Rawson (1821–1890), Argentine Minister of the Interior, who supported the Welsh settlement in Argentina.

The city has a fishing port, Puerto Rawson, on the Atlantic coast, 5 km (3 mi) down the river.

Rawson was the first town founded by the Welsh immigrants who sailed on the clipper Mimosa in 1865 to establish a national colony.

This fuelled a rivalry between the towns, which was further compounded by differences in their ethnic make-up as Rawson was more Catholic and had a higher proportion of Argentines, Italians and Spanish relative to Trelew.

[13] Rawson experiences a borderline cold desert (Köppen BWk)/cold semi-desert (BSk) climate with hot summers, cool winters and low precipitation year-round.