page_title: Battle of Beaver Dams
section_title: National Historic Site of Canada
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Beaver Dams / National Historic Site of Canada
caption_attribution_description: English: Beaverdams park Thorald entrance Gate
context_page_description: The Battle of Beaver Dams took place on 24 June 1813, during the War of 1812. An American column marched from Fort George and attempted to surprise a British outpost at Beaver Dams, billeting themselves overnight in the village of Queenston, Ontario. Laura Secord, a resident of Queenston, had earlier learned of the American plans, and had struck out on a long and difficult trek to warn the British at Decou's stone house near present-day Brock University. When the Americans resumed their march, they were ambushed by Native warriors and eventually surrendered to a small British detachment led by Lieutenant James FitzGibbon. About 500 Americans, including their wounded commander, were taken prisoner.
context_section_description: Beaver Dams represents one of the earliest attempts to create a national historical park. In 1914, a convention of Ontario historical and patriotic groups resolved to ask the Department of the Interior "to develop a 40-acre site near Thorold as a national battlefield park commemorating the Battle of Beaver Dams."
  Although Beaver Dams was not made a national park, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board was created in 1919 to develop a heritage policy at the federal level for historic sites. In 1921, soon after the Board's formation, the Board recommended the designation of the Battle of Beaver Dams site as a National Historic Site of Canada, one of its earliest selections.
  In June 2013, the "Laura Secord Legacy Trail" was dedicated, recreating the route of her journey from her homestead in Queenston to DeCew House in Thorold where she delivered her message to Lt. Fitzgibbon on 22 June 1813. The trail is divided into five distinct stages and encompasses ancient forested Indian trails and modern city sidewalks. The trail is linked to the Trans-Canada Trail and spans a total length of 32 kilometers.
  A monument commemorating the battle was dedicated in 1923 and situated on the original site of the event (near the southeast corner of the intersection of Davis Road and Old Thorold Stone Road, approximately 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) southeast of present-day Thorold), where it was located for several decades. In 1976, this monument (as well as one marking the site where in 1876 during construction of the 3rd Welland Canal the remains of 16 U.S. soldiers from the battle were uncovered) was subsequently relocated several kilometres to the west when the Battle of Beaverdams [sic] Park was opened and there was talk of constructing a 5th Welland Canal near the battlefield. The original site of the battlefield was unmarked from 1976 until 2013, the Battle of Beaverdams Committee discussed marking the site with a "historic boulder" for the bicentennial and this was in fact carried out on 23 June 2013
caption: Gate at the entrance to Beaverdams Park Thorold.
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