diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e659d37..38bfb67 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -32,6 +32,16 @@ You can override the nginx root via setting the `NGINX_ROOT` environment variabl
 dokku config:set static-app NGINX_ROOT=_site
 ````
 
+### Default to index for history routing
+
+By default, this buildpack will 404 if a requested file is not found. For static sites that use the browser's history router to show the correct context, setting the `NGINX_DEFAULT_REQUEST` to a specific file will override this.
+
+```shell
+# where the app is named `static-app`
+# and the desired default response is index.html
+dokku config:set static-app NGINX_ROOT=index.html
+```
+
 ### Custom nginx config file
 
 You may completely override the built-in nginx config by placing an `app-nginx.conf.sigil` file in the root, modeled after our own [`conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil`](https://github.com/dokku/buildpack-nginx/blob/master/conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil). This will be used inside of the container, and not by the host Dokku instance. See the [sigil project](https://github.com/gliderlabs/sigil) for more information concerning the sigil format.
diff --git a/bin/compile b/bin/compile
index ca71057..54eadd6 100755
--- a/bin/compile
+++ b/bin/compile
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ if [ -f "$BUILD_DIR/app-nginx.conf.sigil" ] ; then
 
 # Allow deprecated nginx.conf.erb
 elif [ -f "$BUILD_DIR/nginx.conf.erb" ] ; then
-  echo "-----> DEPRECATED: using user provided nginx.conf.erb"
+  echo "-----> DEPRECATED: Using user provided nginx.conf.erb"
   cp "$BUILD_DIR/nginx.conf.erb" "$BUILD_DIR/nginx/nginx.conf.erb"
 
 # ...else, force default file
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ cat <<EOF >"$BUILD_DIR/start_nginx"
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 rm -f /app/nginx/nginx.conf
 if [[ -f /app/nginx/app-nginx.conf.sigil ]]; then
-  /app/sigil/sigil -f /app/nginx/app-nginx.conf.sigil NGINX_ROOT="\$NGINX_ROOT" PORT="\$PORT" | cat -s > /app/nginx/nginx.conf
+  /app/sigil/sigil -f /app/nginx/app-nginx.conf.sigil NGINX_ROOT="\$NGINX_ROOT" NGINX_DEFAULT_REQUEST="\$NGINX_DEFAULT_REQUEST" PORT="\$PORT" | cat -s > /app/nginx/nginx.conf
 else
   erb /app/nginx/nginx.conf.erb > /app/nginx/nginx.conf
 fi
diff --git a/conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil b/conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil
index f9af43a..9b7976f 100644
--- a/conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil
+++ b/conf/app-nginx.conf.sigil
@@ -23,7 +23,11 @@ http {
     port_in_redirect off;
 
     location / {
-      try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
+      {{ if ne $.NGINX_DEFAULT_REQUEST "" }}
+        try_files $uri $uri/ /{{ $.NGINX_DEFAULT_REQUEST }};
+      {{ else }}
+        try_files $uri $uri/ =404;
+      {{ end }}
     }
   }
 }