The Birkenhead River, formerly known as the Portage River, the Pole River and the Mosquito River, is a major tributary of the

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

, which via

Harrison Lake Harrison Lake is the largest lake in the southern Coast Mountains of Canada, being about 250 square kilometres (95 mi²) in area. It is about 60 km (37 mi) in length and at its widest almost 9 km (5.6 mi) across. Its so ...

and the

Harrison River The Harrison River is a short but large tributary of the Fraser River, entering it near the community of Chehalis, British Columbia, Canada. The Harrison drains Harrison Lake and is the ''de facto'' continuation of the Lillooet River, which feed ...

is one of the major tributaries of the lower

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual ...

. It is just over 50 km long from its upper reaches in the unnamed ranges south of

Bralorne, British Columbia Bralorne ( ) is a historic Canadian gold mining community in the Bridge River District of British Columbia, some 130 km on dirt roads west of the town of Lillooet. Background Gold has been the central element in the area's history going ba ...

(these ranges are sometimes called the Noel Ranges or the Birkenhead Ranges); their western area towards the named

Bendor Range The Bendor Range is a small but once-famous subrange of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains, about It is approximately 7,000 square kilometres (2,700 mi2) in area and about 40 km long (NW to SE) and about 18 km at its widest. ...

east of

Bralorne Bralorne ( ) is a historic Canadian gold mining community in the Bridge River District of British Columbia, some 130 km on dirt roads west of the town of Lillooet. Background Gold has been the central element in the area's history going ba ...

is sometimes called the Cadwallader Ranges.

The river, its resources and its people

Originally known as the Pole River, the lower Birkenhead's valley is part of the

Long Portage Pemberton Pass, , also formerly known as Mosquito Pass, is the lowest point on the divide between the Lillooet River, Lillooet and Fraser River drainages, located at Birken, British Columbia, Canada, in the principal valley connecting and between Pe ...

of the

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...

, also known as the Pemberton Portage. The height of land on this route has been variously called

Pemberton Pass Pemberton Pass, , also formerly known as Mosquito Pass, is the lowest point on the divide between the Lillooet and Fraser River drainages, located at Birken, British Columbia, Canada, in the principal valley connecting and between Pemberton and L ...

(officially), Birken Pass, Gates Pass, and (in

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

times) Mosquito Pass. The river is a major

salmon Salmon () is the common name for several commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the family Salmonidae, which are native to tributaries of the North Atlantic (genus '' Salmo'') and North Pacific (genus '' Onco ...

resource for the

Lil'wat The Lil'wat First Nation ( lil, líl̓watǝmx), a.k.a. the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nation band government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Co ...

subgroup of the St'at'imc people, whose reserve community Mount Currie which spans the lowland between the very lowest reaches of the

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abo ...

and Birkenhead Rivers.

Owl Creek

At Owl Creek, a few miles up the Birkenhead, there was one of the major missions of the

Oblate In Christianity (especially in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Methodist traditions), an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God or to God's service. Oblates are individuals, either laypersons or clergy, normally liv ...

missionary organization, to which

people from up and down the Pemberton Valley (

valley above

Lillooet Lake Lillooet Lake is a lake in British Columbia, Canada about 25 km in length and about 33.5 square kilometres (22 mi²) in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the Lillooet River, which resumes its course after leavi ...

) moved, ultimately to become the Mount Currie community. Owl Creek is now a large non-native subdivision on the west side of the local highway from Mount Currie to

N'quatqua N'Quatqua, variously spelled Nequatque, N'quat'qua, is the proper historic name in the St'at'imcets language for the First Nations village of the Stl'atl'imx people of the community of D'Arcy, British Columbia, D'Arcy, which is at the upper end of ...

(D'Arcy).

Gates River

Just under 25 km up from its mouth, the main Gates Valley branches east off the north-aligned Birkenhead River's valley via Poole Creek, which drains the westward side of the Pemberton Pass; Birken Lake at its summit is part of the

Gates River The Gates River is a short river in the Lillooet Country of the Southern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Approximately 14.5 km in length, it flows generally northeast from the outlet of Birken Lake (aka Gates Lake or Summit Lake) to it ...

system which drains towards Anderson Lake and

. In this area there is a large stone with a foot-shaped impression on it - still there to this day and witnessed by

Alexander Caulfield Anderson Alexander Caulfield Anderson (10 March 1814 – 8 May 1884) was a British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) fur-trader, explorer of British Columbia and civil servant. Anderson joined HBC in 1831 and emigrated to Canada from Europe. He was placed ...

on his journey through the area in 1846 - where it is said one of the transformers stamped his foot in the rock to make a boundary between the people of the Canyon and those of the

valley, who had converged on the spot bearing salmon (from the canyon) and spatsum (weaving reed-grass, from the

). Its location is unmarked and as it is on private land it is not available for viewing.

Birkenhead Lake

Birkenhead Lake Birkenhead Lake Provincial Park is a provincial park in British Columbia, Canada, located in the Lillooet Country region to the northeast of Pemberton and immediately northwest of Birkenhead Peak and Gates Lake (a.k.a. Birken Lake) at the commun ...

feeds the Birkenhead River from its south end and connects with a side-valley on its north end. This side valley pass back to the Gates Valley via Blackwater Creek (in historical records sometimes called the Blackwater River). Birkenhead Lake is protected by a small provincial park, although none of the peaks overlooking the lake are protected. Above that the Birkenhead's upper valley is framed by the range which overlooks the

Pemberton Valley The Pemberton Valley is a valley flanking the Lillooet River upstream from Lillooet Lake, including the communities of Mount Currie, Pemberton, British Columbia and the agricultural district surrounding them and flanking the river as far upstre ...

on the west, and by the mountains of upper Noel Creek south of

Future of river course

Due to siltation much of the land in the eastern part of the reserve, which lies between the two rivers, is new-made since the period of the

and in time it is likely the Birkenhead will be directly a tributary of the

, instead of emptying as it does now into

independently, a few hundred yards northeast of the mouth of the Lillooet River (originally this also would have been the case with the Green River, which is nearer Pemberton, a few miles west and upstream.

Naming

The story of the HMS Birkenhead is famous in British Naval history for the fact that women and children aboard were saved when she sank in February 1852 because they boarded the few lifeboats first. While the boats rowed away, the soldiers stood in their ranks on deck. The commanding officer, who perished, was Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Seton who was related to HBC officer A.C. Anderson who named the lake and river after Seton.

References

BCGNIS "Birkenhead River"
{{coord, 50, 19, N, 122, 36, W, display=title Rivers of the Pacific Ranges Lillooet Country Sea-to-Sky Corridor