Wiktionary
n. (plural of benchland English)
Wikipedia
Benchlands is a hamlet in Alberta within the Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8. The Ghost River is located on the hamlet's south side, while Highway 40 borders the north side.
Benchlands grew from the homestead of Guy Gibson, who selected the section as a returning World War I veteran, much to the chagrin of the lands registry and the Veteran's Affairs Department, who insisted that the land could not be farmed and was, in any event, a highly irregular choice.
In that respect it matched Mr. Gibson to a "T". He had mistakenly married prior to departing for the Great War and was unable to tolerate his bride. He chose the land to preserve his isolation and to find peace in the beauty of the mountains. He built a log cabin for himself on the banks of the Ghost River, and it is said that Guy immersed himself in the icy waters of the Ghost each day, cutting through the ice if need be.
Gibson raised funds by building log cabins for others including the Suitor, Fisher and Manning families, and selling off large lots on the benches to city folk. He never married or had children and died in the mid 1960s. Cabins grew and flourished on the benches of the Ghost.
Usage examples of "benchlands".
For three successive years he spent considerable money and effort, producing nothing except the hard-won conclusion that without irrigation his benchlands were useless, except to grow native grass for the grazing of cattle.
This was a puny effort, not much larger than the private ditch dug by Brumbaugh, and it did nothing for the important accumulations of benchlands to the north.
Most of it was benchlands where thin crops of barley and wheat were already heading out, interspersed with erosion-gullies.
By the 1790's, the intermediate benchlands were brought under cultivation to supply grain, meat, leather, timber and working stock for the mines and sugar plantations.