Dryden is in Thurston Canyon on US 90, Farm Road 1217, and the Southern Pacific line, in south central
Terrell County.
From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s, Dryden had fifty residents and two or three businesses, which served a population including tourists and fishermen. From the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s the population was forty-five, and by 1988 it had dropped to thirteen. In 1990 the community had a post office and an estimated population of thirteen. A general store still operated at Dryden in 1995.