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Sidney is the seat of Cheyenne County and the largest city in the Nebraska Panhandle's southeastern corner, sitting where I-80 meets US-385 just nine miles north of the Colorado border. Founded in 1867 as a Union Pacific Railroad construction camp and named for UP executive Sidney Dillon, the town grew fast and rough — earning a reputation as "Sinful Sidney," one of the rowdiest railhead towns of the Old West.
After the 1874-76 Black Hills gold rush, Sidney became the southern terminus of the roughly 267-mile Sidney-Black Hills Trail, outfitting prospectors headed north to the Dakota goldfields. Fort Sidney protected the town and the trail traffic until it closed in 1894; its surgeon from 1882-84, Walter Reed, later gave his name to the famous Army medical center. Today visitors can walk the Fort Sidney Historic District and Boot Hill Cemetery, and the city was long the headquarters of outdoor retailer Cabela's before its 2017 acquisition by Bass Pro Shops.