Birken is an unincorporated community on the north shore of Gates Lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

. On Pemberton Portage Road, the locality is by road about north of

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

and northeast of Whistler.

Name origin

The

Birkenhead River The Birkenhead River, formerly known as the Portage River, the Pole River and the Mosquito River, is a major tributary of the Lillooet River, which via Harrison Lake and the Harrison River is one of the major tributaries of the lower Fraser River. ...

and the former name of the lake gave the community name.

Trails and roads

The Pemberton Portage was that part 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 Plateau, Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cat ...

between

Lillooet Lake Lillooet Lake is a lake in British Columbia, Canada about 25 km in length and about in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the Lillooet River, which resumes its course after leaving Little Lillooet Lake, aka Tenas Lak ...

and Anderson Lake during the

Fraser Canyon Gold Rush The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's ...

. By late 1858, this rough trail was completed. About midway on this section, Peter Dickenson built Halfway House in 1859. On the mountainside, the venue looked over an expanse of vegetable crops during the next year. By the 1870s, Thomas Poole owned and ran the property, situated about southwest of later Birken. Ronald Currie and Annie McIntosh, step-siblings of John Currie of Pemberton, bought the property around 1900, but the house burned to the ground about 1910. Ronald also operated a stage on the route until 1913. In the 1960s, the old dirt road to Birken and D'Arcy was widened and some of the hills eliminated. About 2000, the road was paved as far as D'Arcy.

Railway

The northward advance of the

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

(PGE) rail head passed in early December 1914. The train station was northeast of Spetch and southwest of Gates. In 2017, a freight train carrying lumber, which derailed nearby, sent five cars into the lake. The next year, several cars carrying wood pulp derailed. One was almost submerged, one was entering the water, and one was precariously resting on the bank.

Early Birken community

In 1907, Samuel Spetch opened a store. In June 1908, he became the first postmaster, but that August relocated the store/post office to Owl Creek. The Birken post office reopened in 1920 and permanently closed in 1970. In 1922, M.B Pullinger was the inaugural teacher when the Birken school opened. Having closed and reopened a few times, the final closure was in 1944. In 1929, Samuel Spetch returned from Owl Creek to open a store. The population was about 40 by 1934, 50 by 1938, 38 by 1943, and 46 by 1947.

Mile 72

About to the southwest, an access point for miners into Tenquille Creek was at Mile 72. From the 1920s, cabins were built at this location.

Later Birken community

In a semi-forested area at the base of steep slopes, the population of about 250 has no cellphone reception. Floods and landslides present the greatest hazards. A volunteer fire department exists. The nearby Gates Lake Community Park was established in 2013. The Birken Lakeside Resort is an historic lakeside property. The Birken House Bakery and Bed and Breakfast offers traditional breads and lodgings. Annual events are the Gates Lake Shinny Tournament held in February and the Birken 4X4 OffRoad Rally in June. The Birken Country Market is held monthly during the summer.

Footnotes

References

*{{cite book, last1=Decker , first1=Frances , last2=Fougberg , first2=Margaret , last3=Ronayne , first3=Mary , title=Pemberton: The History of a Settlement, rev. ed., publisher=Pemberton Pioneer Women , year=1978 Designated places in British Columbia Unincorporated settlements in British Columbia Lillooet Country Populated places in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District