Yukon who is who

Joseph Burr Tyrrell (1858 - 1957)

Joseph Tyrrell was born in Weston, Ontario to William and Elizabeth Tyrrell. He graduated from Upper Canada College and received a law degree from the University of Toronto in 1880. He articled for a law firm in Toronto before taking the advice of a doctor to find employment outdoors. He joined the Geological Survey of Canada in 1880 and discovered dinosaur bones in Alberta’s Badlands in 1884. He led expeditions into the North Barren Lands in 1893 and 1894. He and Mary Edith Carey married in 1894 and had three children.¹⁾

In 1897, Tyrrell had a salary dispute with the Geological Survey and agreed to stay for one more season if his salary was renegotiated. He was assigned to the Yukon in the spring of 1898, and hired A.N.C. Treadgold as his assistant for some of the work.²⁾ In 1898, Tyrrell travelled the Dalton Trail down the Nordenskiold River to Carmacks and then went up Rowlinson Creek and down the Nisling River. His reported noted the geology of the area.³⁾ At the end of October, Tyrrell learned his bid for a raise was turned down and he resigned effective 1 January 1899. Fred Wade [Registrar of Lands in the Yukon] persuaded him to return to Dawson and start a mining consultancy business.⁴⁾ His wife, Mary Edith, joined him in Dawson.⁵⁾

Tyrrell spent seven years in the Klondike. His mine engineering business as so busy that he took on a partner. Tom Green was a Mohawk from the Brantford Reserve in Ontario. He was science graduate from McGill University and Tyrrell found him to be an excellent surveyor and mathematician. Tyrrell and his family were well-known in Dawson. After 1901, Tyrrell was mainly occupied with the operations of a hydraulic concession company and he put much of his own time and money into the operation.⁶⁾ Yukon Commissioner Ross tore down the Tyrrells’ cabin when he decided to build the territorial Administration Building on Fifth Avenue.⁷⁾

In 1905, Tyrrell returned to Toronto and became a well-known mining consultant and the Canadian agent for the British Anglo-French Exploration Company from 1910 to 1930.⁸⁾ He was also the mine manager for the Kirkland Lake Gold Mine in northern Ontario starting in 1926.⁹⁾ J.B. Tyrrell is well known for his work on glacial geology and his publication of artist David Thompson’s journal. The Tyrrell Medal, an endowment to the Royal Society of Canada, is awarded annually to the best published historical work of the year.¹⁰⁾

Tyrrell retired to Scarborough on the Rouge River where he grew apples; grafting and breeding them. The orchards are now the site of the Toronto Zoo. Canada’s Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta is named for Joseph Tyrrell.¹¹⁾

The Tyrrell collection is held by the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto. The collection includes Klondike photo albums from 1898-1905, prints including some cellulose negatives of the Klondike 1898-1905, cellulose negatives of the Klondike 1898-1905, glass plate negatives of the Klondike 1899-1901, and glass lantern slides of the Klondike 1898-1905. The Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller is named in his honour and a Yukon mountain and a stream are named for him.