[5] Zuidveen is located in the northwest of Overijssel province, along provincial road N333, called Zuidveenseweg where it passes the village.

A grassland east of Zuidveen, De Kamp, is composed of boulder clay which reaches up to six metres above mean sea level and is considered to be of geological interest.

Settlement of the present-day area of Zuidveen began with the arrival of peat cutters, probably in the High Middle Ages.

In 1460, a deed from the Bishopric of Utrecht – the legal entity that governed the territory – amplifying the city boundaries of Steenwijk mentions 'Zuetvene'.

As the fens began to be exploited on a large scale for the first time and the population grew, it became necessary to demarcate the areas each participant was entitled to work in.

Zuidveen resident Meine Veen (married 1920) was billed as the last turfmeter, or peat measurer, in the province of Overijssel.

The Olde Aa in Zuidveen, once an important transportation channel, was largely filled in 1949-50, and the bridges which had had a social meeting function disappeared with it.

Throughout the centuries, the school building functioned as a meeting place where business transactions were done and public proclamations were read.

[21] The founding of the Mennonite church in Zuidveen around 1560 has been attributed to Leenaert (or Leendert) Bouwens, an elder appointed by Anabaptist leader Menno Simons.

In 1774, a split occurred between more conservative and more progressive Mennonite factions in Zuidveen, and a new vermaning was built on the Langesloot called Het Nieuwe Huis (The New House).

Its pulpit, elders' benches and organ stem from Zuidveen, as does a brick carrying the inscription "IMMANUEL Ao 1630", thought to have been part of the first vermaning on the Langesloot.

[25] The first entrepreneur to organize public transportation in the Kop van Overijssel was Jan Zijlstra, originally from Oldelamer and living in Zuidveen.

In 1904 Zijlstra, nicknamed de Ziele, began operating a horse-drawn wagonette, or omnibus, between Steenwijk and Giethoorn that seated twenty persons.

It stands out for its vowel sound [ɛː] in many words, spelled ae in Stellingwarfs and pronounced like the è in French père.

This characteristic gave rise to the shibboleth Et waeter klaetert teugen de glaezen dat er daevert (The water splashes noisily against the windows).

As an example of Zuudvenegers, an extract from Toone Kamp's poem Woarom mag i'j neet mit eur noar Sevene goan (Why can't he go to Zuidveen with her):[29]