Joseph Tyrrell (1858-1957)

Geologist Biography

J.B. Tyrrell was born on November 1st, 1858, in Weston, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Toronto in 1880 with a law degree, but joined the Geological Survey of Canada – under then director, A.R. Selwyn – in 1881 after his doctor diagnosed him with weak lungs and advised him to seek outdoor work.

Tyrrell was hired by Selwyn as an apprentice clerk, beginning with a meager salary of $500 a year. His first two years at the Survey were spent assisting curator J.F. Whiteaves, organizing the Survey’s collections and setting up the museum at the new Ottawa location. In these first years, Tyrrell was exposed to many of the fossils and specimens residing in the Survey’s collection, but the young and somewhat impulsive Tyrrell chafed to get out into the field, where the action was.

Much to Tyrrell’s relief, in the spring of 1883, Selwyn assigned him to a field party led by the indefatigable George Mercer Dawson as field assistant. The party had the important task of mapping out the geology and resources along the newly-chosen southern route of the Canadian Pacific Railway line. Dawson worked Tyrrell hard, but after that summer Tyrrell was well on his way to becoming a field geologist. The following year, Selwyn needed all capable hands in the field and so Tyrrell was given a field party of his own.

The next three years were pivotal in the life of the young geologist. Selwyn instructed Tyrrell to map the rocks, vegetation, and resources occurring within the vast, largely unsettled area of the Alberta Plains situated between the Bow River on the south and the North Saskatchewan River on the north.

It was during the summer of 1884 that Tyrrell was to make several important discoveries, including finding fossilized remains of a dinosaur, later named Albertosaurus, along the Red Deer River, as well confirming the reports of the Palliser expedition of the existence of thick coal seams in the same area.

Tyrrell was to spend three field seasons one of them interrupted by the North West Rebellion of 1885 -completing his work in the Alberta Plains before being sent to map other areas for the Survey.

J.B. Tyrrell would go on to a relatively short, but distinguished career at the Survey, largely in the role of reconnaissance geologist, before leaving the Survey in 1899 to work in the Klondike gold fields.

He is perhaps best-remembered for his explorations in the Barren Lands of northern Canada and his contributions to understanding glaciations. He went on to a successful career as a mining engineer and consultant in northern Ontario, eventually becoming a millionaire. Tyrrell was a man of varied interests.

Later in life, he went on to publish a narrative on the journeys of David Thompson, as well as breeding apples, creating the Golden Delicious.

He received numerous awards and honours in his long and varied life, including the Murchison Medal, the Flavelle Medal, the Wollaston Medal, the Back Award, and the Daly Medal.