Graveled roadbed except for 7 m. bituminous surface, 40 m. graded dirt highway, and 16 m. unimproved dirt road.
Accommodations in principal towns.
US 85, a direct route through western North Dakota between Saskatchewan and the South Dakota Line, traverses the Coteau du Plateau du Missouri, crosses the Missouri River, and enters the severe, majestically beautiful region of the Missouri Slope with its expansive range country and scenic Badlands. Between the Canadian border and the Missouri, boulder-strewn, smoothly rounded hills are evidence of glaciation. In the rough country along the Missouri and Little Missouri Rivers, the high, mesa-like buttes, flat-topped and capped with thick layers of rock, mark the level of the land before it was worn by ages of erosion.
It has been said that men have been equal at only three times since creation—once in the Garden of Eden, once in the Declaration of Independence, and once in the "cow country" before the fence. When white settlers were just beginning to invade these wide plains and rough Badlands, cattle were being driven here from the Texas Panhandle. The famous Chisholm Trail that ran north from Texas to Abilene, Kans., had many branching trails, one of which ran through the area now traversed by US 85. In 1934, when P. P. Ackley of Elk City, Okla., an old southwestern cattleman, marked the Chisholm Trail he included this northern branch.
US 85 crosses the Canadian boundary 11 m. S. of Torquay, Sask., Canada.
At 0.0 m. are clustered the small buildings of the customs office and the border patrol.
AMBROSE, 3 m. (2,060 alt., 334 pop.), named for a Soo Line right-of-way employee, in its early history was one of the greatest primary grain markets in the Northwest. With five elevators, and many hawkers buying on the track, as many as 300 grain wagons often crowded the streets, sometimes remaining several days before they could deliver their loads. Before the railway was extended W. of Ambrose, the town was a shipping point for horses, sheep, and cattle from the ranch country of eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Ambrose has two parks and a swimming pool.
At 6.5 m. is a junction with ND 5, a graveled highway (see Tour 5), which unites with US 85 between this point and 16.5 m. where US 85 branches L.
In the vicinity of ZAHL, 39.5 m. (2,000 alt., 153 pop.), are many small underground lignite mines that supply local markets and truckers. The town is named for F. R. Zahl, who came to this region in the early 1870's and became an outstanding buffalo hunter. The first post office here was at his ranch, E. of the present town. ND 50, a graveled highway (see Side Tour 4A), unites with US 85 between Zahl and 43.5 m., where US 85 branches R.