Initially settled in May 1856 along the historic Great Platte River Road, the city was named for Columbus, Ohio; its location along the proposed transcontinental railroad made it especially attractive to early settlers.

The city is located in the Omaha media market, and has 6 radio stations licensed to it; it is also home to the Columbus Telegram, a newspaper published five days per week.

A campus of Central Community College is located 4 miles (6 km) outside Columbus; its sports teams are the Raiders.

In the 18th century, the area 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.

[3] The Pawnee are thought to have descended from the Protohistoric Lower Loup Culture;[4] the Otoe had moved from central Iowa into the lower Platte Valley in the early 18th century;[5] and the closely related Omaha and Ponca had moved from the vicinity of the Ohio River mouth, settling along the Missouri by the mid-18th century.

[6] In 1720, Pawnee and Otoe allied with the French massacred the Spanish force led by Pedro de Villasur just south of the present site of Columbus.

In the absence of a ferry or a bridge, most of these followed the Loup for a considerable distance upstream before attempting a crossing: the first major wave of Mormon emigrants, for instance, continued up that river to a point about three miles downstream from present-day Fullerton.

[12]: 5 Just west of the Columbus site, the Elk Horn and Loup Fork Bridge and Ferry Company, headed by James C. Mitchell, had laid out the townsite of Pawnee.

[14] In 1858, the Platte County Commissioners passed an act of incorporation making Columbus a town;[15] at this time there were 16 citizens.

The Homestead Act, passed the previous year, attracted a host of settlers to the Plains and gave rise to increased emigrant traffic business.

The Burlington and Missouri proposed to develop a line from Lincoln through Columbus and into northwestern Nebraska, and urged the citizens of Platte County to vote a bond of $100,000 for construction expenses.

Union Pacific financier Jay Gould, displeased at the prospect of competition, informed the voters of the county that if the measure passed, he would do his best to ruin Columbus.

When the Union Pacific developed its subsidiary Omaha, Niobrara and Black Hills Railroad, he directed that it cross the Loup River at Lost Creek, then run south to join the Union Pacific's main line at Jackson (since renamed Duncan), bypassing Columbus.

Railroad officials agreed to reroute the line down the north bank of the Loup to Columbus in exchange for a $25,000 contribution from the city.

Later that same year, John Nicholson, originator of the highway, spoke at a meeting in Columbus, at which the Nebraska Meridian Road Association was organized.

The completion of the Meridian Bridge in 1924, replacing a seasonal ferry across the Missouri River at the Nebraska-South Dakota border, made the highway a year-round route from Canada to Mexico.

Grain and livestock prices had been high during World War I, engendering a bubble in farmland; to acquire additional acres, farmers had secured them with mortgages not only on the newly purchased land, but also on their older holdings.

The fall in the prices of agricultural commodities, combined with drought-induced crop failures in 1934 and 1936, forced many such farmers to abandon their lands.

[23]: 44–5 The civic and commercial leaders of Columbus aggressively sought federal and state funds for local construction projects during this time.

[25] Initially financed with a loan and grant of $7.3 million from the Public Works Administration,[24]: 124 construction of the diversion structure, canal, and powerhouses began in August 1934[26]: 78 and was finished, apart from some final details, in September 1938.

They persuaded the federal government to purchase 90 acres (36 ha) in northeastern Columbus, and to build a railroad line to the site.

Columbus made headlines in 1997 when 25 million pounds of beef from a Hudson Foods plant in the city were recalled.

[32] In 2009, Fernando Lopez, Karen Gomez and Maria Davila founded Columbus-based Centro Hispano Comunitario de Nebraska which provides immigration, education and business services in three counties.

[35] During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Columbus City Council passed a mask mandate in a special meeting held in late November.

Precipitation is concentrated between April and October with a maximum during the late spring and early summer, and averages 26.87 in (682 mm) annually.

Columbus's economy is based on agriculture and manufacturing, with many industrial companies attracted by cheap, plentiful hydroelectric power.

The site is also home to the Freedom Memorial, which incorporates steel from the remains of the World Trade Center, destroyed by terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Noteworthy current or former residents of Columbus include Chuck Hagel, US Secretary of Defense from 2013 to 2015; actor Brad William Henke; world heavyweight boxing champion Leon Spinks; architect Emiel Christensen; and NFL football players Joe Blahak, Cory Schlesinger, and Chad Mustard.

Born into a horse racing family, his father was the Hall of Fame trainer, Marion Van Berg.

Jim Pillen (born December 31, 1955)[1][2][3] is an American politician, veterinarian and livestock producer serving as the 41st and current governor of Nebraska since 2023.