BOWMAN, =248.5 m.= (2,958 alt., 888 pop.), seat of Bowman County, lies at the base of flat-topped, sandstone-capped TWIN BUTTES. Known successively as Lowden Post Office and Twin Buttes, the town won the county seat election in a bitter fight with Atkinson (later Griffin) in 1907, and in January 1908 was given its present name. Both town and county are named for E. W. Bowman, a prominent Territorial legislator. The junction with US 12 (_see Tour 9_) is in Bowman, and the two routes unite to =250 m.= where US 85 turns L. and reaches the South Dakota Line at =264.5 m.=, 103 m. N. of Belle Fourche, S. Dak. (_see S. Dak. Tour 13_). SIDE TOUR 4A Junction US 85--Hanks--Grenora--Sodium Lakes--Writing Rock. ND 50 and unnumbered county roads. Junction with US 85 to Writing Rock, 30.3 m. G. N. Ry. parallels route between junction with US 85 and Grenora. Graveled roadbed 12 m., graded dirt roads and prairie trail remainder of route. Accommodations in principal towns. This short route passes through a region of boulder-strewn, smoothly rounded hills left by glacial action, and leads to extensive but undeveloped sodium sulphate beds and the archeologically important Writing Rock State Park. The populations of both towns on the route are chiefly Scandinavian; they were settled by immigrants who arrived with or shortly after the railroad. ND 50 branches W. from US 85 (_see Tour 4_) at Zahl. HANKS, =5 m.= (2,114 alt., 213 pop.), named for W. F. Hanks, a Powers Lake rancher and banker who was connected with the town site company, begins its history with the arrival of the G. N. branch line in 1916. In the 1890's the N-N (N Bar N) Cattle Co. of St. Louis, which ran herds of livestock S. of the Missouri River in central Montana, refused to ship their stock over the G. N. because of a disagreement with that line. As a result they had to trail their large herds many weary miles to the nearest Soo Line points, which were at Bowbells and Kenmare, N. Dak. (_see Tour 7_). As many as 30,000 of these Chicago-bound cattle passed through Hanks in a single season on their way to the railroad, herded by dust-caked cowboys of the authentic, original, Wild West variety. Ranching was the chief industry of this section when it was first settled, and there is still some small-scale ranching in the vicinity. GRENORA, =11 m.= (2,105 alt., 487 pop.), has a name derived from the-first three letters of the words Great Northern, and as terminus of that railroad enjoyed a brief boom in 1916. West of Grenora ND 50 is a graded dirt road. At =14 m.= is the junction with a county dirt road (R) which is now the route. At =17 m.= is the junction with a prairie trail.