U.S. Highway 20 (US-20) is a part of the United States Numbered Highway System that runs for 3,365 miles (5,415 km) from Newport, Oregon, to Boston, Massachusetts. Within the state of Nebraska, it is a state highway that begins on the Wyoming–Nebraska state line west of Harrison near the Niobrara River and runs to the Nebraska–Iowa state line in South Sioux City. Throughout its 431.60-mile (694.59 km) length, the route passes through a diverse range of landscapes, including bluffs and escarpments in the Nebraska Panhandle, the Sandhills in the northern part of the state, and rolling hills and plains as the highway approaches the Missouri River valley south of Sioux City, Iowa. Throughout its length, US-20 is a two-lane highway with the exception of the easternmost 8.45 miles (13.60 km), which is a four-lane divided highway, the last 3.21 miles (5.17 km) of which is concurrent with Interstate 129 (I-129). The 197 miles (317 km) between the Wyoming border and Valentine is designated as the Bridges to Buttes Byway, one of nine scenic byways in the state of Nebraska.

Crazy Horse was a Lakota war leader of the Oglala band in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by White American settlers on Native American territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the Black Hills War on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman Fight in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.