Sarpy County is a county located in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2010 census, the population was 158,840, making it the third most populous county in Nebraska. Its county seat is Papillion. Sarpy County is included in the Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
In the Nebraska license plate system, Sarpy County was represented by the prefix "59" (it had the fifty-ninth largest number of vehicles registered in the county when the license plate system was established in 1922). Many license plates issued in Sarpy County featured the stacked format of the 59 code. The county, just south of Omaha, had grown significantly in population in the decades following 1922 and therefore required five characters rather than the four allowed by a standard double-digit county code. In 2002, the state discontinued the 1922 system in Sarpy, Douglas and Lancaster counties.
Explored in 1805 by Lewis and Clark and settled by fur traders, adventurers, farmers, and finally entrepreneurs, Sarpy County has served as the springboard for Nebraska's settlement and expansion.
Sarpy County is named after Colonel Peter Sarpy, an early fur trader at Fontenelle's Post located in the Bellevue area in the 1840s. Sarpy died in Plattsmouth, Nebraska Territory in 1865.
Despite the fact that Sarpy County contained the oldest settlement in the state, it was one of the last lands along the river to be recognized by law. Finally, on February 1, 1857, the land "where the cities meet the country" was officially created.