Scottsbluff was founded in 1899 by the Lincoln Land Company (a Burlington Railroad subsidiary) across the North Platte River from Scotts Bluff itself, the towering landmark now preserved as Scotts Bluff National Monument and named for Hiram Scott, a Rocky Mountain Fur Company trader who died in the area during a fur-trapping expedition.

The largest city in the Nebraska Panhandle and its 13th most populous city overall, Scottsbluff had a 2020 population of 14,436. Together with neighboring Gering it anchors the Scottsbluff Micropolitan Statistical Area, the 7th-largest urban area in Nebraska, and is home to the Midwest Theater and the historic Lincoln Hotel.