Zeehan was one of the first places in Tasmania ever seen by Europeans. As early as 1642 Abel Tasman sighted the mountain peak which was subsequently named Mount Zeehan after the brig in which he was sailing. It was Bass and Flinders, travelling around the Tasmanian coast in 1802, who named both Mount Zeehan and Mount Heemskirk after the two boats used by Tasman in his epic voyage.

The wild and rugged area remained unexplored until the discovery of tin at Mt Bischoff in 1871. In the years that followed prospectors rushed the area and a certain mining craziness set in. In 1879 tin was discovered at Mount Heemskirk north of the present site of Zeehan. It led to a boom which saw more than 50 companies staking claims over some 6400 hectares of what would prove to be hopeless and useless country. There were even leases sold on the beaches along the coast. By the 1880's there were only a dozen mines working in the Heemskirk area.

In late 1882 four miners moved further south and in December a man named Frank Long discovered silver-lead near the present day site of Zeehan, Tasmania. It led to the largest mining boom on Tasmania's west coast with Zeehan being dubbed the 'Silver City of the West' and, within a decade, Zeehan growing to become the third largest town in Tasmania. This is hardly surprising given Long's first samples had yielded 70 ounces of silver per ton.