There have been four places in North Dakota where people have lived that were/are called Cannon Ball. The most prominent is the current town in Sioux County. All of them have a relationship to the Cannonball River. No explanation could be found, by this writer, as to why there are different spellings especially between the contemporary town and the river.

Cannonball River. Early pioneers called the river Cannonball from the many limestone concretion boulders found in bed and banks of the river. They had a resemblance of cannon balls. The Sioux Indians called the river Inyan Wakagapi. Inyan Wakagapi is derived from rock markings on hills near the river and means "Place of Sacred Markings" or "Stone Idol."

Cannonball Stage Station. Township 132, Range 86. The Cannonball Stage Station was the fifth stop after Bismarck on the Bismarck-Deadwood Stage Trail [aka Black Hills Trail]. From 1877 to 1880, this booming stagecoach line linked the westernmost stop of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Bismarck to the gold fields of the Black Hills. The stage station was built in 1877 by the Northwest Express and Transportation Company. It overlooked the Cannonball River in the southwest quarter of section 29 of the township which at the time was in Morton County.

Cannon Ball - Morton County. Township 134, Range 79. A pioneer settlement in the northwest quarter of section 16, on the north bank of the Cannonball River. The post office was established 21 June 1880 with Rich M. Johnson [note: some records have Richard M. Johnston] as Postmaster and it closed 1 August 1881 being replaced on that date by the Gayton post office on the opposite side of the Missouri River in Emmons County. It then reopened 12 October 1889 as CANNON with Robert Goudreau as Postmaster. Following protests from local settlers, the full CANNON BALL name was restored on 19 November 1889. The 1900 census shows 59 people in the township, mostly ranchers; 1910, 50 people, mostly farmers; 1920, 35 people; 1930, 27 people; 1940, 32 people. There is no reference to Cannon Ball in either of the census reports. The post office closed again on 31 March 1915 with mail to Fort Rice.

Cannon Ball Junction - Sioux County. This was at the junction of the East-West Milwaukee Railroad and the North-South Northern Pacific Railroad in the northwest quarter of section 23 in Township 134 Range 79 just north of present-day Cannon Ball. It was built in 1910 and some sources indicate it was originally named BELDEN, named after William L. Belden, United States Indian Agent-at-Large at Fort Berthold and Superintendent of the Standing Rock Indian Agency 1906-1911; however, the Emmons County Record referenced "the new town of Cannon Ball Junction" in an article dated 9 March 1911 and holds other references to Cannon Ball Junction as early as July 1910. So, the Belden information may not be correct as there are several Belden communities throughout North Dakota. There have been references to Cannon Ball Junction as recently as 2018 but this writer can find no references to any residences ever being there.

Cannon Ball - Sioux County. Township 134, Range 79. On 1 December 1913 a post office named Hekton was established at what was called the Cannon Ball station and it appears that when it started a settlement also started which was called Hekton as there are newspaper references to Hekton as a settlement as late as 1917. On 3 December 1915 the Post Office name was changed to Cannon Ball by Postmaster Chester R. Wilcox, taking the name of the adjacent Morton County post office which had closed on 31 March 1915. It is unclear as to when the city name was changed from Hekton to Cannon Ball although in the newspaper announcement mention is made that the Cannon Ball Post Office name is now the same as the town and the station. There are newspaper references to Hekton as late as 1917. The city was served by the Northern Pacific Railroad branch line for many years. The post office, Zip Code 58528, became a rural branch of Fort Yates on 17 November 1966.