[2][3] In 1786, the cape was named in honour of David Scott, a merchant of Mumbai (Bombay), who had backed James Strange's maritime fur trade voyage to the Pacific Northwest Coast.

The terms for the cape were "trail on the surface," "foam place, "sea monster," and "swell on beach."

[6] Promoted to be an idyllic settlement, a Danish-Canadian community was established about 6 km (3.7 mi) east of the cape at the head of Hansen Lagoon in 1897.

The community sloop Floyberg, which carried marketable produce to Shushartie and returned with supplies, was shipwrecked in 1899.

[11] Based on typical sea conditions, freight and passengers probably disembarked onto rowboats at the final destination, located somewhere near the cape.

From 1910, the nearest significant transportation link was the CP ferry service to Holberg,[14] a destination for cattle drives.

[15] During the following decade, a private launch made a weekly Shushartie–Fisherman's Bay freight run, but capacity was limited.

The installation of government telephone lines along the trails connecting Holberg to Cape Scott, San Josef Bay, Sea Otter Cove and Shushartie,[13] was completed in 1915.

During the early 1900s, the small launch making the Shushartie–Fisherman's Bay mail run included stops at Nahwitti and Strandby.

[18] At Fisherman's Bay, Theodore Frederiksen was one of the first settlers, and one of the last to leave, when the government acquired his property for the radar station in 1942.

[9] Collapsed buildings, rusty farming implements, neglected wells, random fenceposts, and some gravesite monuments, are all that remain of those earlier attempts to settle this unforgiving environment.

[21] 1892: Schooner Maggie Mac broke up and traces were found in a small cove south of Cape Scott.

[24] 1910: Freighter St. Denis, which broke up at sea with the loss of 22 lives, produced debris that washed ashore at Cape Scott.

In 1969, a controversial deal was the acquisition of 233 hectares (576 acres), assessed at $300,000, in exchange for $10 million worth of logging rights elsewhere.

The 11 Cape Scott core area trails measure 2.5 to 23.6 km (1.6 to 14.7 mi) each way and are rated as easy/moderate in difficulty.

Cape Scott is located on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean and is affected by the Alaska Current, which moderates year-round temperatures to make them less extreme.