The Queenston Heights is a geographical feature of the Niagara Escarpment immediately above the village of

Queenston Queenston is a compact rural community and unincorporated place north of Niagara Falls in the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. It is bordered by Highway 405 to the south and the Niagara River to the east; its location at the eponym ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada. Its

geography Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...

is a promontory formed where the escarpment is divided by the Niagara River. The promontory forms a

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion, with the effect of gravity. Cliffs are common on co ...

face of approximately 100 m (approximately 300 ft).

War of 1812

Queenston Heights was the site of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

Battle of Queenston Heights, where Major-General

Sir Isaac Brock Major-General Sir Isaac Brock KB (6 October 1769 – 13 October 1812) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Guernsey. Brock was assigned to Lower Canada in 1802. Despite facing desertions and near-mutinies, he co ...

was killed in action in the defence of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...

(now Ontario). It is mentioned in the 1867 song "''

The Maple Leaf Forever "The Maple Leaf Forever" is a Canadian song written by Alexander Muir (1830–1906) in 1867, the year of Canada's Confederation. He wrote the work after serving with the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto in the Battle of Ridgeway against the Fenia ...

''": At Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane Our brave fathers, side by side, For freedom, homes, and loved ones dear, Firmly stood and nobly died. And those dear rights which they maintained, We swear to yield them never. Our watchword evermore shall be, The

Maple Leaf The maple leaf is the characteristic leaf of the maple tree. It is the most widely recognized national symbol of Canada. History of use in Canada By the early 1700s, the maple leaf had been adopted as an emblem by the French Canadians along th ...

forever!

War memorials

Queenston Heights is the site of

Brock's Monument Brock's Monument is a 56-metre (185 ft) column atop Queenston Heights in Queenston, Ontario, Canada, dedicated to Major General Sir Isaac Brock, one of Canada's heroes of the War of 1812. Brock, a British Army officer in charge of defen ...

and a monument to War of 1812 heroine

Laura Secord Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American atta ...

. There are 235 stairs inside the monument, leading to a viewing area close to the top. The site was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

in 1968. Fort Drummond, also located at Queenston Heights, is separately recognized as a National Historic Site.Fort Drummond
, National Register of Historic Places

References

External links

Official website

Art works of the Battle of Queenston Heights
Niagara Falls Public Library (Ont.) {{NHSC Canadian military memorials and cemeteries Geography of the Regional Municipality of Niagara Niagara-on-the-Lake National Historic Sites in Ontario Monuments and memorials in Ontario Landforms on the National Historic Sites of Canada register War of 1812 National Historic Sites of Canada