The Lure of the Labrador Wild

In Short

This narrative recounts the ill-fated 1903 expedition led by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., accompanied by author Dillon Wallace and Cree guide George Elson, into the unexplored wilderness of Labrador. After taking a wrong river channel, the party faces relentless portages, dwindling provisions, and an early sub-Arctic winter. As starvation takes hold, they turn back in a grim effort to reach safety. Highly regarded for its emotional honesty and vivid portrayal of northern wilderness, the book stands as a classic true account of camaraderie, endurance, and human limitation against an unyielding landscape.

The Story

The expedition begins with high hopes and lightweight gear in July 1903, as Leonidas Hubbard, Dillon Wallace, and George Elson land at the Rigolet post on Hamilton Inlet. Desiring to travel quickly into the unmapped interior toward Lake Michikamau, Hubbard intentionally chooses a small party and minimal provisions, relying on hunting, fishing, and native techniques to sustain them. Almost immediately, an error sets their fate: missing the main Nascaupee River trail, they enter the rugged, treacherous Susan Valley via Goose Creek, laboring through grueling portages over swamps and boulder-strewn hills.

As the summer weeks slip away, the terrain grows increasingly punishing. The men carry heavy packs and a water-logged canoe across miles of rock, finding only small lakes and dead-end creeks. Game proves scarce; an early caribou slips away before a rifle can be retrieved, leaving them dependent on scattered trout, grouse, and berries. Despite exhaustion, the mood around the campfire remains optimistic, buoyed by deep companionship, roasted fish, and shared dreams of future journeys.

By September, icy winds, sleet, and snow signal the swift arrival of a northern winter. Standing atop barren ridges, they realize they have failed to reach Michikamau. With their emergency rations down to pea meal and a bit of rice, and their bodies severely weakened, Hubbard decides they must turn back along their ascent route to save their lives.

The retreat becomes a brutal trial. Fish runs vanish, weather conditions deteriorate into a ten-day blizzard, and their physical strength rapidly disintegrates. Hubbard eventually collapses from exhaustion and can no longer march. The men make the agonizing choice to leave Hubbard resting in a shelter with the remaining scraps of mouldy flour, while Wallace backtracks to recover a discarded cache of bones and tripe, and Elson presses ahead toward Grand Lake to find rescue.

Elson braves freezing waters on makeshift rafts, guided by sheer determination and a nocturnal dream, until he hears the voice of a child near an isolated trapper’s cabin. A search party is dispatched, but when rescuers reach Hubbard's tent, they find he has already succumbed to the cold and hunger. Wallace is rescued in an extremely emaciated state, nursed back to health by local settlers, and spends the long winter months preparing to transport his companion's body 325 miles over the snow by dog sled to the coast.

How It Unfolds

The voyage begins The party lands on the mossy Laurentian rock of Pompey Island and boards a passing steamer to reach the Hudson's Bay Company post at Rigolet. Hubbard, Wallace, and Elson organize their equipment into seventy-five-pound packs, using head straps to haul their supplies across swampy portages under the summer sky.

Lost in the interior Navigating up Goose Creek, the men encounter dead-end waterways and endless, rocky portages that exhaust their physical strength. They miss the main river channel entirely, mistaking a shallow bay for the true route, and push forward into a high, desolate landscape.

Rations run low As August turns to September, game proves unexpectedly scarce, forcing the men to rely on small trout, ptarmigan entrails, and dried apples brought from home. Despite cold nights and dwindling fat reserves, they draw comfort from evening campfires and promises of reaching Lake Michikamau.

The decision to retreat Faced with freezing mountain winds, snowsqualls, and an impending Arctic winter, the party realizes their supply of food is completely inadequate. They decide to abandon their canoe and heavy gear to make a forced march back down the trail toward Grand Lake.

Separation in the storm Hubbard becomes too weak to walk, forcing the party to set up a stationary camp in a heavy snowfall. Elson pushes ahead alone to reach a trapper's settlement, while Wallace turns back to collect a previously cached supply of animal bones to sustain Hubbard.

Rescue and loss Elson successfully navigates freezing river crossings on a improvised log raft and finds help at a trapper's tilt. Rescuers discover that Hubbard has died quietly in his tent, while Wallace is recovered alive but severely frostbitten and weak.

The long journey home Wallace spends weeks recovering at Northwest River, eventually securing a wooden coffin and dog-sled team. Together with Elson, he hauls Hubbard's body over three hundred miles of ice to the Labrador coast for final transport.

The People

• Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.: The ambitious leader of the expedition who seeks adventure, wilderness copy, and a meaningful life purpose. He maintains a relentless optimism and deep spiritual faith even as starvation wears down his physical frame, ultimately dying peacefully in his tent while waiting for aid.
• Dillon Wallace: The author and faithful companion who joins the journey out of deep affection for Hubbard. He endures extreme physical collapse, severe digestive distress, and frostbite, driven by a promise to finish the expedition's work and return his friend's body home.
• George Elson: A skilled Cree guide whose wilderness experience, resourcefulness, and incredible stamina repeatedly preserve the group. He scouts trails, carries heavy loads, reads the landscape, and hazards his life on freezing rafts to bring back a rescue team.
• Donald Blake and his family: Trappers living at the edge of Grand Lake who offer immediate shelter, warm broth, and clean underclothes to the surviving travelers, exemplifying the unreserved hospitality of the isolated northern country.

In Its Own Voice

"A perceptible current, a questioning word, the turn of a paddle would have set us right. No current was noticed, no word was spoken, and the paddle sent us straight toward those blue hills yonder, where Suffering and Starvation and Death were hidden and waiting for us."

Wallace reflects on the fatal moment at Grand Lake when the team unknowingly passed the correct river opening.

"'Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?'"

Wallace reads from the Book of Matthew by the campfire to comfort an exhausted Hubbard before their final separation.

"'When I heard that youngster scream,' said George, in telling me about the incident, 'I knew folks was there, and I dropped my bag, and I tore my piece of blanket from my shoulders, and I runned and I runned.'"

George Elson describes the moment he reached human habitation after floating across freezing waters on a log raft.

What It's Really About

At its heart, the book explores the tension between romantic ambition and the unyielding realities of an untamed natural world. It questions what drives individuals to push beyond the borders of known maps into environments that offer no margin for error. Beyond the physical hardships, the narrative examines the nature of loyalty, spiritual endurance, and human devotion under extreme stress. The relationship between the three men reveals how shared suffering strips away pretension, leaving only basic affection, shared faith, and mutual duty. It serves as a quiet meditation on loss, acceptance, and the quiet dignity of facing tragedy without bitterness.

Why Read It Today

Readers drawn to authentic survival literature, wilderness exploration, and historical travel accounts will find this text deeply compelling. It offers an immediate, unvarnished look at northern exploration before modern GPS, radio communication, or lightweight synthetic gear existed.

The prose is straightforward, grounded, and emotionally understated, avoiding sensationalism while letting the stark facts of cold, hunger, and physical exhaustion build natural suspense. Its atmosphere is defined by contrast: the biting wind of sub-Arctic ridges against the brief warmth of a spruce-bough campfire; the terror of starvation against the simple comfort of shared tea.

The book does reflect its era, containing occasional period terminology regarding native populations and the regional dialects of northern trappers and fishermen. Its pacing mirrors the expedition itself, moving deliberately through repetitive portages before tightening into a tense, desperate struggle for survival. What remains with the reader long after finishing is the profound bond of friendship between the explorers and the quiet heroism of those who ventured into the wilderness only to be humbled by it.