Thrums is an unincorporated community on the northwest shore of the Kootenay River in the West Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia.^[1] The location, on BC Highway 3A, is by road about 11 kilometres (7 mi) northeast of Castlegar, and 33 kilometres (21 mi) southwest of Nelson.

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Thrums
Thrums Location of Thrums in British Columbia
Coordinates: 49°20′35″N 117°35′31″W
Country	Canada
Province	British Columbia
Region	West Kootenay
Regional District	Central Kootenay
Area codes	250, 778, 236, & 672
Highways	Hwy 3A

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J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan author, also wrote Auld Licht Idylls, A Window in Thrums, and The Little Minister, set in the fictional Scottish village of Thrums. In 1900, the second book in the trilogy gave Thrums, BC, a railway switch, its name. The suggested proponent/s are Robert W. and Janie A.S. Chalmers (a farming couple who settled around this time), an unknown female train passenger,^[2] or the daughter of an unspecified Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) director.^[3]

CP's adding of this Columbia and Kootenay Railway siding to the timetable in 1900^[2] may have been merely as a designated siding. The flag stop, which appeared around 1905 was 5.8 kilometres (3.6 mi) northeast of Brilliant, and 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) southwest of Tarry's.^[4] Passenger service ended in 1964.

Fruit growing was initially the main industry,^[19] which transformed to farming over time. The Chalmers, longtime residents from Scotland, also raised poultry. A general store opened in the 1910s.^[20] Becoming predominantly a Doukhobor community, the Thrums Cemetery opened in 1912. Operated by the Union of Spiritual Communities of Christ (USCC) from 1940 until the 1970s, the site is now disused and overgrown.^[21] Several stores operated by the 1940s.^[22] The Chalmers ran a small store and tea room called The Window from the early 1940s.^[2]

The population was about 150 by 1928,^[23] 250 by 1934,^[24] 174 by 1939,^[25] 387 by 1943,^[26] 250 by 1946,^[27] and 218 by 1951.^[28] The post office, which opened in 1906, did not reopen after burning down in 1978.^[2]

Various incidents linked to the Freedomites:
1930: Attempted arson of community hall^[29] and damage by explosives to school.^[30]
1932: Parading in nude prompted 118 arrests^[31] and three-year sentences.^[32]
1938: Church burned.^[33]
1946: Doukhobor hall destroyed by fire.^[34]
1947: Barns burned.^[35]
1958: Nearby gas pipeline dynamited.^[36]
1959: Three feet of CP track dynamited.^[37][38]

A market/deli and small businesses operate. Since Thrums can be used as a generic name for the area that stretches north to Glade, the boundary with Tarrys is unclear.^[2]

Joe Irving (1911–2015), author, ironworker activist, graduated high school in his 90s, and centenarian, was the first baby born in Thrums.^[39][40]