[2] When the Russians arrived in the 1640s, they built three forts on the Kolyma: Nizhnekolymsk, Srednekolymsk, and Verkhnekolymsk (i.e., lower, middle, and upper Kolymsk).

Srednekolymsk was at the head of navigation by seagoing koches, in forested country for good fur trapping and on the overland route to the Indigirka River.

At some point the name was changed to Yarmanka, from the Russian word for "fair", referring to the annual gatherings of indigenous inhabitants of the area here in spring.

[1] As an administrative division, it is, together with one rural locality (the selo of Lobuya), incorporated within Srednekolymsky District as the Town of Srednekolymsk.

A ice free port in the summer allows for goods to be shipped up river The town is served by the Srednekolymsk Airport (IATA: SEK).