Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska: History
Scotts Bluff County was created on November 6, 1888.
The county is named for a prominent bluff that served as a landmark for 19th-century pioneers traveling along the Oregon Trail. Scotts Bluff was named for Hiram Scott, a Rocky Mountain Fur Company trapper who died nearby around 1828. Washington Irving claimed that, after being injured and abandoned, Scott had crawled sixty miles only to perish near the bluff that now bears his name. The bluff is now managed by the National Park Service as Scotts Bluff National Monument.
The town of Gering was founded at the base of the bluff in 1887, and the city of Scottsbluff was founded across the North Platte River in 1900. Joined by the river, the former transportation highway, the two cities now form Nebraska's 7th-largest urban area.
On July 31, 2022, a VOW (Volcano Warning) was issued for the Scottsbluff area. The alert itself did not say anything about a volcano, but rather a wildfire. Nebraska has no active and/or dormant volcanoes.