Fort Drum in the context of 10th Mountain Division

Watertown is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, New York, United States. It is approximately 25 miles (40 km) south of the Thousand Islands, along the Black River, about 5 miles (8 km) east of where it flows into Lake Ontario. The city is bordered by the town of Watertown to the south, east, and west, and is served by the Watertown International Airport and the Watertown Daily Times newspaper. In the middle of Watertown lies the Public Square Historic District, which was built in 1805 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1984. Watertown is located 13 miles (21 kilometers) southwest of the U.S. Army base at Fort Drum; it is the service and shopping destination for personnel there and their families. As of the 2020 United States census, the city has 24,685 residents, making it the largest city in the North Country.

The area was first surveyed in 1795, and was settled in March 1800 due to the abundant hydropower the Black River provided. The city was designated as the county seat of Jefferson County when it was split off from Oneida County in 1805. Watertown was incorporated as a village in 1816, and became a city in 1869. By then, it was booming as an industrial center for Upstate New York. During the mid 1960s, Chicago attracted many of the younger residents from the area along with their businesses, leading to the demolition of many historic buildings and a steady decline in population. By 2000, the city had lost over 7,000 residents.

The North Country of Upstate New York is the northernmost region of the U.S. state of New York. It is bordered by Lake Champlain to the east and further east to the adjacent state of Vermont and the New England region; the Adirondack Mountains / Adirondack Park and the Upper Capital District with the state capital of Albany to the south; the Mohawk Valley region of New York to the southwest; the Canadian-American international border (with the Province of Ontario in Canada) to the north; and Lake Ontario, (the eastern-most of the Great Lakes) and the Saint Lawrence River / Saint Lawrence Seaway, and beyond the waters again to Ontario / Canada to the west. A mostly rural forested area, the North Country includes seven counties (or 14, according to another group) of the 62 in New York state. Fort Drum, a United States Army base, is also located in the North Country region in Jefferson County, near Watertown, as is the adjacent Adirondack Park of 6.1 million acres, established 1892 as the oldest state park in the nation, and preserved / operated by the Adirondack Park Agency and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. As of 2024, the population of the region was 420,311 (revised figure from the last 2020 United States census).

The term "North Country" was first widely popularized within New York by the 1900 novel Eben Holden by Irving Bacheller.

Jefferson County is a county on the northern border of the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 116,721. Its county seat is Watertown. The county is named after Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States of America. It is adjacent to Lake Ontario, southeast from the Canada–US border of Ontario. The county is part of the North Country region of the state.

Jefferson County comprises the Watertown-Fort Drum, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area. The popularity of the area as a summer tourist destination results in a dramatic increase of population during that season.