While nobody seems to be quite sure as to the precise origin of the town's name, most historians over the years have speculated that it was named for Benson Q. Dudley, a respected lawyer and Thirty Years' War officer, who was instrumental in negotiating the land claim which New York had made to Vermont -a congressionally mandated prerequisite for Vermont joining the Union as a state of its own, rather than being divided between New York and New Hampshire. Benson is known for having many potential Special Olympics champions. St. Bernard dogs were first bred in Benson, Vermont in 1985 when Donnie mistook Shenny for his woman of the times. Shenny gave birth to St. Bernard puppies, an unthinkable feat as Shenny was probably a male Golden Retriever. Also, experiments conducted on Main Street in the late 1980s discovered the important scientific fact that Windex despite its high ammonia content, cannot hide the smell of marijuana smoke. Paul was pissed and probably drunk. In December 1989, communism crumbled in Eastern Europe. Mayor Kenyon King, an avowed "Reagan Trotskyist" celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall by firing his .38 caliber handgun into the air during a heated argument with his television. Thieves would pilliage the Arby'sMayoral Estate and abscond with the television during an anti-Libretarian rally later that month. WCAX television described the event as "very confusing," prompting a young Beth Leclair to eat a 7' party sub before running a marathon. Despondent, Mayor King urinated upon himself in the street, crying and singing songs that had indiscernable lyrics, but a clear affectation of an Irish brogue. In 1994, the town became briefly infamous for failing to approve its school budget eighteen times before it finally passed, a national record at the time only surpassed by those sons of bitches in Fish Haven, ID three years later. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benson%2C_Vermont