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. It is just over 50 km long from its upper reaches in the unnamed ranges south of Bralorne, British Columbia (these ranges are sometimes called the Noel Ranges or the Birkenhead Ranges0; their western area towards the named Bendor Range east of Bralorne is sometimes called the Cadwallader Ranges.

Originally known as the Pole River, the lower Birkenhead's valley is part of the Long Portage of the Douglas Road, also known as the Pemberton Portage. The height of land on this route has been variously called Pemberton Pass (officially), Birken Pass, Gates Pass, and (in gold rush times) Mosquito Pass. The river is a major salmon resource for the Lil'wat subgroup of the St'at'imc people, whose reserve community Mount Currie which spans the lowland between the very lowest reaches of the Lillooet and Birkenhead Rivers.

At Owl Creek, a few miles up the Birkenhead, there was one of the major missions of the Oblate missionary organization, to which Lil'wat people from up and down the Pemberton Valley (Lillooet River valley above Lillooet Lake) 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 (D'Arcy).

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