Sentence:  Half a <WSD>mile</WSD> below at the mouth of Salyer 's Canyon was an old ranch that the company had purchased from A. J. Armstrong , occupied by a Mexican , his wife , and an old trapper . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a unit of length equal to 1,760 yards or 5,280 feet; exactly 1609.344 meters