It was founded in 1893 as a mining settlement under the name of Gorodok. Mining of the local tungsten and molybdenum reserves began in 1933. Town status was granted to it in 1944. It was renamed Zakamensk in 1959, from the Russian term Zakamen which had been used for the region since the 17th century. The word means beyond the rocks in Russian, referring to its location beyond the Chamar-Daban mountains.