Notre Dame Mountains

The Notre Dame Mountains are a portion of the Appalachian Mountains, extending from the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec to the Green Mountains of Vermont.[1]

Notre Dame Mountains
Highest point
Elevation1,269 to 1,271 m (4,163 to 4,170 ft) 
Geography
CountriesCanada and United States
States/ProvincesQuebec, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont
Range coordinates48°45′N 66°00′W
Parent rangeAppalachian Mountains

The range runs from northeast to southwest, forming the southern edge of the St. Lawrence River valley, and following the Canada–United States border between Quebec and Maine. The mountainous New Brunswick "panhandle" is located in the Notre Dame range as well as the uppermost reaches of the Connecticut River valley in New Hampshire.

As the mountains are geologically old, they have eroded to an average height of around 600 m (2,000 ft).

Etymology

Notre Dame is French for "Our Lady," a Catholic term referring to the Virgin Mary.

While on an expedition on 15 August 1535, Jacques Cartier wrote:

Le landemain jour Notre Dame d'aoust XVe ... eusmes cognoissance de terres qui nous demouroient vers le su qui est une terre à haultes montaignes à merveilles

The jour Notre Dame d'aoust XVe refers to the feast of the Assumption of Mary, commemorated in the Catholic Church on 15 August. The following autumn, maps he authored carried the name "haultes montaignes de Honguedo." However, it was the title of "Notre Dame" that would propagate quickly throughout the 16th century, with French navigator Jean Alfonse referring to them as the "montz Nostre Dame" in his 1544 work Cosmographie, followed by Gerardus Mercator in 1569.[2]

Geography

Topography

The Notre Dame Mountains are the principal subrange of the Appalachian Mountains in Quebec. Within Quebec, the range parallels the St. Lawrence River until its terminus at the eastern end of the Gaspé Peninsula. However, the southern limit of the range is the subject of some debate, though some sources consider either Lake Memphremagog or the US border as the southern edge of the Notre Dame Mountains.[3]

The Chic-Choc Mountains are one of the primary subranges of the Notre Dame Mountains. They are located in the northeastern part of the Gaspé Peninsula and are home to the tallest mountain in the range, Mont Jacques-Cartier, with an elevation of 1,268 m (4,160 ft). The other major subsection of the Notre Dame Mountains is the Massif du Sud, which is found in the southern part of the range, southeast of Quebec City, and reaches an elevation of 915 m (3,002 ft).

Geology
Champlain Peak in Bic National Park

Conservation

The Notre Dame Mountains are protected by several parks, both federally by Parks Canada and provincially by the Quebec Sépaq and New Brunswick:

See also

References
  1. "The Canada Land Inventory (CLI) for the Quebec City Map 21 L". Ecoinformatics International. 2006. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  2. Reference number 44832 of the Commission de toponymie du Québec (in French)
  3. "Fiche descriptive". www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca. Retrieved 2020-11-09.


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