[5] According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.2 square miles (3.1 km2), all land.

Interest in building a town at the intersection of present-day US 178 (Charleston Highway) and S.C. 210 (Branchville-Providence Roads) was evidenced in the acquisition of substantial properties of the Reddick A.

These actions, aimed at developing and exploiting the agricultural and lumbering potential of an area that had remained rather dormant since the American Civil War, were taking place in the late 1880s.

The site chosen for Bowman was actually situated in the center of a rice farming country, later transformed into a major cotton-producing area where the land has a clay sub-soil, ideal for this and other crops.

On the afternoon of December 5, 1977, a tornado, approaching from the west parallel to Highway 210, struck the downtown area.

Three people were injured, the streets were littered with glass and debris, a few trailers were demolished, buildings were unroofed, and a power failure occurred.

[citation needed] In the early years immediately prior to the founding of Bowman, mail service amounted to once or twice-a-week deliveries from Orangeburg by horse and buggy to outlying communities, such as Rileys, Connors and Ruples.

The postal system of those early years in Bowman's history involved horse and buggy deliveries about twice a week from Orangeburg, and patrons from both town and surrounding areas had to pick up their mail from the post office until rural routes and carriers were organized to deliver mail outside the town limits in the early 1900s.