Birtle was incorporated in 1884. In 1891, Birtle had a population of 338. The community lies in the Birdtail River valley. It features a spacious community park developed in the early years of the community with additions through the years to bring it to the current time where the original golf course designed to take advantage of the valley contours now enjoys the modern amenities and the tennis courts still located in the original location now feature modern plexipave surfaces and are some of the best in western Manitoba. Another attraction is the Birdtail Country Museum, housed in an historic stone building on Main Street. The building was built in the early 1900s to be used as the Union Bank. Later it was purchased by the Royal Bank of Canada. The main floor was the bank premises. The second floor was the bank manager's living-quarters. In 1983, the building was purchased by the former town and the former Rural Municipality of Birtle. It officially opened as the Birdtail Country Museum on 24 May 1984, as a joint centennial project of the former town and former rural municipality. Inside are more than 4,000 artifacts related to the area, including such historical items such as the diaries of original
settlers (Alfred Morton's, from 1878), button hooks for ladies' boots, and ice-saws and ice-tongs used for harvesting ice from the Birdtail River in the winter. The Museum houses the trophies awarded to Samuel Larcombe, one of the early
settlers of Birtle. In 1917, Larcombe, the "World Wheat King", developed a variety of
rust-resistant
wheat. The second floor of the Museum is set up to resemble a
Victorian home. People often come to the Museum to do genealogy research through the microfilm reader, which contains every edition of the Birtle 'Eye Witness' newspaper, dating back to 1891. Local history books for the community and surrounding districts provide additional sources of information. A self-guided Heritage Walking Tour describes the history of many of the buildings and sites in the community. In 1974, the Municipality of Birtle History Committee published
A View of the Birdtail documenting the history of the municipality from 1878 to 1974
. The History Committee was chaired by then Mayor, Ray Howard and included representatives from each of the districts of the municipality. A second book,
Passing it On, documenting the history of the municipality and town was published in 2009. Birtle was designated as Birds Tail Rivulet on the Thompson map of 1813–14. The settlement was founded in 1879 and first called St. Clair City. The
Birtle Indian Residential School operated from 1888 to 1970. == Geography ==