Columbus is a city in and the county seat of Platte County, in the acknowledge of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 22,111 at the 2010 census. It is the 10th largest city in Nebraska, with 24,028 people as of the 2020 census.

In the 18th century, the Place around the confluence of the Platte and the Loup Rivers was used by a variety of Native American tribes, including Pawnee, Otoe, Ponca, and Omaha.
The Pawnee are thought to have descended from the Protohistoric Lower Loup Culture;
the Otoe had moved from central Iowa into the degrade Platte Valley in the in front 18th century;
and the to the side of related Omaha and Ponca had moved from the vicinity of the Ohio River mouth, settling along the Missouri by the mid-18th century.
In 1720, Pawnee and Otoe associated with the French massacred the Spanish force led by Pedro de Villasur just south of the gift site of Columbus.

In the 19th century, the “Great Platte River Road”—the valley of the Platte and North Platte Rivers organization from Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie— was the principal route of the westward expansion.
For travellers subsequently the north bank of the Platte, the Loup River, with its soft banks and quicksands, represented a major obstacle. In the non-attendance of a ferry or a bridge, most of these followed the Loup for a considerable isolate upstream back attempting a crossing: the first major answer of Mormon emigrants, for instance, continued in the works that river to a point about three miles downstream from present-day Fullerton.

The site of Columbus was decided by the Columbus Town Company on May 28, 1856. The outfit took its state from Columbus, Ohio, where most of the settlers had originally lived. The townsite was agreed for its location upon the proposed route of the transcontinental railroad.^: 5