Tyrrell was born in Weston, Ontario, the fifth child of William and Elizabeth Tyrrell. He was the brother of Canadian explorer and author James William Tyrrell. He was a student at Weston Grammar School before graduating from Upper Canada College in 1876 and receiving a law degree from the University of Toronto in 1880. After articling for a law firm in Toronto, his doctor advised him to work outdoors due to his health.
He published two books in 1888: A Brief Narrative of the Journeys of David Thompson and The Mammalia of Canada.[2]
He led the 1893 and 1894 expeditions into the Northern Barren Lands, down the Dubawnt River, the first visit to the Kivalliq Region Barrenlands by a European since the explorations of Samuel Hearne in the 1770s. Joseph's younger brother, James William Tyrrell, accompanied him on the expedition, which included the first European contact with the Ihalmiut, Inuit from the interior of what is today Nunavut.
Tyrrell married Mary Edith Carey in 1894. They had three children: Mary (born 1896), George (born 1900), and Thomas (born 1906).[3] Mary Edith was the founder and first president in 1921 of the Women's Association of the Mining Industry of Canada.[4]
In 1894, Tyrrell stumbled upon biographical recollections (11 books of field notes, 39 journals, maps, and a narrative) of Canadian overland explorer, cartographer, and fur trader David Thompson and, in 1916, published them as David Thompson's Narrative.[5]
Tyrrell went into the gold-mining business in 1898, a career that would last more than 50 years. In his work he published several books on gold fields. In 1912 he published The Law of the Pay-streak in Placer Deposits.[6]
He was the mine manager of the Kirkland Lake Gold Mine in northern Ontario for many years starting in 1926.[1]: 191 [7]
Tyrrell retired to northeast Scarborough on the Rouge River, where he established substantial apple orchards and an interest in grafting and breeding. The expanded orchards, later managed by his son George, are now the site of the Toronto Zoo.
A biography by Heather Robertson, 2007, Measuring Mother Earth: How Joe the Kid became Tyrrell of the North, McClelland & Stewart Inc. ISBN0-7710-7539-1
