Gogama, Ontario, Canada

From other sources, the reporter heard a different slant to the story. Bootlegging was big business during LaFlamme's heyday and problems of police interference were a constant worry. So the story goes that several bootleggers sponsored Joe to train wolves, shaping them into a first class sled team which could outrun any dog team. Moonshiners, operating their stills miles deep in the bush required a faster mode of transportation for the delivery of molasses and sugar used in the making of alcohol – faster, that is- than any mode of transportation the police had at their disposal. And let's not forget that Laflamme himself was perhaps the most notorious bootlegger in the region. Stories about his daring exploits in Gogama abound. Allegedly, he was often successful in eluding the police because he stored crates of homemade moonshine underground in his yard. The police dared not enter even with a warrant because the yard was home to his wolves. Yes, LaFlamme was often successful in this enterprise as well.

Gogama, Ontario - Joe Laflamme photo In some ways, Joe LaFlamme's life followed a natural rhythm. His first years were spent in obscurity in Quebec trying a number of different things, as if searching for his niche through a process of elimination. What originally prompted his decision to seek his future in the village of Gogama remains unclear and a topic for speculation. If rumours of his tarnished reputation as a Montreal police officer are true, maybe he wanted to keep away from public scrutiny but then why would he bound into the public spotlight with his wild animals, becoming the media darling of his time? What we do know is that his presence then ushered in a dramatic period of life for both him and Gogama, thrusting the remote hamlet into public consciousness of major American and Canadian cities.

But by the late 1940's, the sunset of Joe's illustrious career began to fade into twilight. As the wheel came around full circle, problems with chronic low blood pressure and exhaustion from the constant demands of his animals forced him to return to Montreal. He was growing old. He survived for a while, back in the shadow of obscurity, working as a traffic guard, an investigator for a private firm, and finally as a night watchman on Montreal's docks. He died at the age of seventy-five in the year 1965!

Joe LaFlamme was a powerful purveyor of the truth—his own truth. He had visions, ideas, and he pursued them with passion, relentless in his determination. Heedless of public scorn, alienation, or even the strong arm of the law, he had the courage to overstep the crisply delineated boundaries of ‘normal' acceptable behaviour in order to achieve his dreams. He was an enigmatic mixture of enviable attributes and human failings. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, his story evokes an awareness in us, that we all have the potential to become what we need to be. We have not only the lurking shadows of our psyche, the thought-provoking forces of the heretic within. In the reflection of Joe's image, we can see something of ourselves.

Reference: “MOOSEMAN – Hero or Heretic” by Marek Krasuski - marekkrasuski.com

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