Birch Island is an unincorporated community in the Thompson region of south central British Columbia.

The former ferry site is by the mouth of Foghorn Creek and straddles the North Thompson River.

When settlers came into the valley during the early 1900s, a community developed on the south shore upon land largely owned by Robert (Bob) Alexander.

Adjacent to the east, A. Wynne had an 32-hectare (80-acre) property, later losing his orchard to the Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) right-of-way.

Westbound freight trains stopped for hot box inspections Within a decade, a water tower, coal dock, wye, and 24-hour telegraph operators were present.

[13] Months later, a locomotive struck a landslide 8 kilometres (5 mi) east, uncoupled, and rolled down a bank.

[16] In 1929, the river was temporarily diverted to allow repairs to the rail bridge damaged by the previous year's flood.

[10] In 1951, a conductor burned to death when three gondola cars and the caboose from a freight train plunged from the rails.

[20] In 1955, a man who shot the marker off the caboose of a moving freight train received a 30-day sentence.

When the administrative centre moved to Clearwater in the early 1970s, the school district was renamed North Thompson.

[53] In 1969, Chuck Dee, wife Anna Mae, and family, came to join his father at Birch Island, and they built a general store on the north shore.

[58] After the school closed in 1984,[59] the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 259 leased the building for over a decade,[60][61] and it later became the community centre.

[65] In 2015, a large number attended the centenary celebration of the hamlet held at the Birch Island Community Park.

By that time, the river ice was seasonally blasted to create a channel,[71] and an aerial cage ferry for passengers crossed during the wintertime.

[76] During construction of the road bridge across the river, a worker broke both arms and a leg on falling 6.1 metres (20 ft) to the deck.

[78] North River Coach Lines, which had operated Kamloops–Little Fort, extended the route northward to Birch Island in 1946,[79] and farther eastward to Vavenby in 1951–52.

[85] In January 2005, an ice jam severely damaged the original Howe truss bridge and caused extensive flooding.

[88] The Birch Island Rest Area, which lies off the highway to the west, offers picnic tables and washroom facilities.