Tucked into the rolling landscape of central Alberta, Bentley sits along Highway 12 within Lacombe County, roughly 28 kilometres northwest of Red Deer. The community traces its origins to the late 1880s, when the first settlers arrived from the United States between 1888 and 1890, making the journey on foot or by ox-drawn wagon from Lacombe, which was the nearest railway stop at the time. A post office opened in 1901, a Methodist church had already been established in 1890, and a schoolhouse followed in 1903. The town takes its name from George Bentley, an early homesteader and sawyer, though the choice was not without controversy. When Major William B. McPherson, a U.S. Civil War veteran who opened the original post office, put forward his own name, settler opinion was divided. Sawmill workers ultimately outnumbered those who favoured McPherson, and Bentley it became. Earlier proposed names, Oxford and Springdale, were rejected because both had already been widely used elsewhere across Canada. Bentley was incorporated as a village on March 17, 1915, and later achieved town status on January 1, 2001.
A serious fire in 1916 wiped out every building along the south side of the community, prompting officials to establish a centre roadway measuring 36 metres wide, with new construction prohibited within that zone. By 1930, a centre boulevard had been added along with street lighting, both serving as fire prevention measures. More recently, the town experienced two significant losses: a well-known grain elevator that had long appeared on road signs entering Bentley was destroyed by fire in 2022, and a beloved local gathering spot known as the Monkey Top bar was lost to flames on January 16, 2024. According to Statistics Canada’s 2021 Census, Bentley had a population of 1,042 residents living in 451 of its 471 private dwellings, a modest decline from 1,078 in 2016. The town covers a land area of 2.24 square kilometres, giving it a population density of approximately 465 people per square kilometre. Education is served by Bentley School, a single public institution running from Pre-K through Grade 12 under the Wolf Creek Public Schools division. Among the town’s notable residents are country music singer and songwriter Dick Damron, former NHL player Perry Turnbull of the St. Louis Blues, and Clayton Beddoes, who played for the Boston Bruins.