Exploring the Ottawa Valley through Stompin’ Tom Connors' ballad of Big Joe Mufferaw

Lumberjack, ruffian, folk hero and fighter – Big Joe Mufferaw still looms large two centuries on, standing as one of the most notorious figures in Ottawa Valley history. Allegedly six foot four and packed with muscle, Big Joe, born Joseph Montferrand, earned immortality through a series of tall tales about his exploits, along with the iconic 1970 folk song Big Joe Mufferaw by Canadian music legend Stompin’ Tom Connors. 

Both the song and Big Joe’s colourful life provide more than just entertaining folklore; they offer a vivid glimpse into life in 19th-century Ottawa, during the golden age of the logging industry. From Mattawa up the Ottawa River to the portage at Gatineau, the legacy of Big Joe’s era still lingers in the towns and streets of the Ottawa Valley. Step into the pages of history and trace Ottawa’s legendary past by following Big Joe’s iconic logging route, stopping in the very towns immortalized by Stompin’ Tom’s classic ballad. 

The truth and legend of ‘Big’ Joe Montferrand 

Joseph Montferrand was a real person, though it’s safe to say he didn’t have a “pet frog that barked like a dog” like the song claims. 

The real ‘Big Joe’ was born in Montreal in 1802, signed on to the Hudson’s Bay Company at twenty-one and worked as a logger in the Ottawa region until his retirement in 1857 – passing away seven years later at the age of sixty-one. His life along the Ottawa River was large enough on its own, earning him folk-hero status in his own time, along with the nickname “Mufferaw”– a phonetic anglicization of the Montferrand surname. 

Most tales about Joe focus on his legendary size and strength: knocking out world-class boxers with a single punch and splitting logs with ease. He was a Franco-Ontarien and working-class hero, but also a man defined by violence. Most stories cast him as a fist-swinging defender of French-Canadian virtue, none more infamous than the Bytown brawl where he is said to have defended francophone workers from the Irish “Shiners” gang – allegedly beating down 150 opponents and swinging their leader like a club. While the details are surely embellished, the underlying violence was very real. 

The real 19th-century logging routes of the Ottawa Valley 

Much more than the setting of tall tales, the towns named in Stompin’ Tom’s song have deep roots in the history of the Ottawa region. 

In the early 19th century, spurred by Emperor Napoleon’s continental blockade, the British Empire found itself desperately searching for a new source of timber. Cut off from traditional European supply, Britain instead looked to Canada, quickly turning the Ottawa River from a remote frontier into a booming industrial artery of red and white pine. Immigrants from across Europe and the United States poured into the region, establishing riverside settlements that would eventually grow into the modern capital region. 

Loggers would paddle up the Ottawa River to ply their trade in towns like Mattawa, Renfrew, Calabogie and Pembroke - as mentioned in Stompin’ Tom’s song. While manageable journeys by car today, these expeditions were gruelling in their time.

The song’s claim that Big Joe paddled from Ottawa to Mattawa in a single day would be an impressive feat indeed, being an upstream journey of nearly 400 kilometres - yet it truly captures the mythic endurance and rugged frontiersmanship that defined the early lumber trade. 

While a sleepier town today, Mattawa proudly claims a massive statue of Joe Mufferaw, surrounded by natural beauty that is well worth a visit. 

Once the logs were cut, they were shaped into square timbers with broadaxes, tied into bundles, and floated downstream toward the mill towns surrounding Bytown (modern Ottawa), where they would be sawn and prepared for trade at international markets in Quebec. Loggers like Big Joe would often ride atop these bundles in a practice known as timber rafting - allowing them to guide their bounty as it made its way downriver.  

The journey involved arduous portages at places like Gatineau before reaching Bytown, the beating urban heart of the trade, thanks to its strategic position at the mouth of the newly built Rideau Canal. This vital waterway gave loggers and merchants quicker access to the St. Lawrence River and, by extension, the transatlantic markets of Quebec and beyond.  

Mill towns mentioned in Stompin’ Tom’s song, like Arnprior, Carleton Place, Kemptville and Smiths Falls, were crucial to the trade, serving as a processing point where timber was readied for commerce and shipping across the Atlantic. 

Truth and legend in the Ottawa Valley 

Did Big Joe carve the path that would become the Rideau Canal? He surely didn’t lay down Mount Saint Patrick just to bury a cross-eyed bass. Songs and tall tales have the incredible power of connecting us to our collective imagination - yet often, the real lives and histories behind the legends are just as vivid, strange and mythical. From lumber barons to larger-than-life loggers, the story of Canada often runs deeper, and wilder, than we give it credit.