Box Butte County, Nebraska: History
Box Butte County was created on November 2, 1886, it took its name from a large box-shaped butte north of Alliance.
Box Butte County was formed as part of a series of partitioning of the Nebraska Panhandle. In 1883, the Nebraska legislature divided the Panhandle into two counties, Sioux and Cheyenne. In 1885 the original Sioux County was divided into three counties: Sioux, Dawes, and Sheridan. Because of the distance to the county seat of Chadron, residents of southern Dawes County asked that it be split off; in 1886, the legislature created Box Butte County. The new county was named after a butte in the northern part of the county; before the county's formation, its name had been used in advertisements by railroad companies seeking to entice settlers to the area.