Dawson City, Yukon, was named in George Dawson's honor after he in 1887 explored and mapped northern British Columbia and the headwaters of the Yukon River, land previously unknown except for First Nations accounts and those of a few prospectors.
In 1901, French Canadian archaeologist Henri-Marc Ami (1858 –1931) published a 30-page life sketch of his friend Dawson.
Ami had high praise for Dawson, noting that "not only as a geologist, but also as an ethnologist and naturalist Dr. Dawson was well known, and his too early demise will be sorely felt by the whole scientific world.... His loss to Canada cannot be overestimated. His place can never properly be filled.... There is removed from this sphere of activity one of the greatest lights and intellects of the last progressive half of the century just ended."
