The first residents of Embrun settled the town in 1845. François Michel named the town in 1857 after Embrun, France. The town's early economy was based on lumber, as the area was heavily forested and the soils too moist for good agriculture. In the 1870s, however, with deforestation and the advent of land drainage technologies, agriculture replaced lumber as Embrun's main industry. The town grew rapidly in the late 19th century, a trend accelerated by the advent of the railway in 1898 (see Railway section below).