Plains of Abraham

Plains of Abraham
Plains of Abraham in summer
Location	Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
Coordinates	46°47′59″N 71°13′15″W / 46.79972°N 71.22083°W / 46.79972; -71.22083Coordinates: 46°47′59″N 71°13′15″W / 46.79972°N 71.22083°W / 46.79972; -71.22083
Area	98 ha (240 acres)
Established	17 March 1908
Governing body	National Battlefields Commission (Canadian Crown)

The Plains of Abraham (French: Plaines d'Abraham) is a historic area within The Battlefields Park in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The land is the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place on 13 September 1759, but hundreds of acres of the fields became used for grazing, housing, and minor industrial structures. Only in 1908 was the land ceded to Quebec City, though administered by the specifically created and federally-run National Battlefields Commission. The park is today used by 4 million visitors and tourists annually for sports, relaxation, outdoor concerts, and festivals.

The Plains of Abraham Museum serves as the park's information and reception centre. It features a multi-media exhibition about the siege of Québec and the 1759 and 1760 battles of the Plains of Abraham. Other displays feature the history of the site through archaeological artifacts found in the park. Open year round and located at 835 Wilfrid-Laurier Avenue, the museum serves as the starting point for tours and includes a gift shop.

The plains are likely named after Abraham Martin (1589–1664), a fisherman and river pilot called The Scot. Martin moved to Quebec City in 1635 with his wife Marguerite Langlois and received 32 acres of land divided between the lower town and promontory from the Company of New France. Abraham's name appears in the toponymy of Quebec City at the time of the French regime, the deeds of the 17th and 18th centuries referring to the coast of Abraham, and a 1734 plan even precisely locating an Abraham Street. Later, the journals of the Chevalier de Levis and the Marquis de Montcalm referred to the Heights of Abraham, as did the diaries of British soldiers, who also employed the phrase Plains of Abraham.

The park itself presently occupies an area approximately 2.4 km (1.5 mi) long by 0.8 km (0.5 mi) wide, 98 ha (242 acres) that extends westward from the Citadelle of Quebec and the walls of Quebec City along a plateau above the Saint Lawrence River, and forms a part of The Battlefields Park. An interpretive centre and walking trails have been built on the site, and monuments commemorate the Battle of Sainte-Foy and James Wolfe, the latter being an astronomic meridian marker raised in 1790 by the Surveyor-General of Canada, Major Holland, on the site where Wolfe was said to have died. In 1913, the National Battlefields Commission placed a column identical to one that had been built on the site in 1849, and a replica Cross of Sacrifice was constructed on the plains to commemorate soldiers who were lost in World War I; it continues to be the location of Remembrance Day ceremonies every year.