Retracing the Hubbard and Wallace Saga
Text and photos by Philip Schubert, Kanata, Ontario, Canada (click here to communicate with the author)
I’ve spent a decade canoeing the lakes and rivers, and hiking the portages in Labrador and northern Quebec travelled over by the participants in the Hubbard-Wallace saga. For an overview of my adventures, see my articles in Che-Mun (Naskaupi River Journal - 2005, A Wet Brush with History - 2006, and Cutting the George and Philip Down to Size - 2008).
The Hubbard and Wallace saga is a story of tragedy, adventure,
courage, dogged determination and splendid accomplishment in Canada’s
north. The saga began in 1903 and cost the life of Leonidas Hubbard. The book on the tragedy, The Lure of the
Labrador Wild, by Dillon Wallace, one of two survivors of the trip, became
an instant best seller and is still in print.
It has inspired generations of paddlers since then to explore Canada's
North. It resulted in further trips in
1905 and 1913 and determined the direction of the remainder of the lives of
Leonidas' widow, Mina Hubbard, and Dillon Wallace. The saga has inspired
about 10 books in the past century. Double click here to go to a website which has pulled a
wealth of information together on the saga.
A biography, however, had never been done to date on one of the most
interesting participants in the saga, Dillon Wallace. I have now published one.
See below.
For those interested in
the saga and solo travel in the wilderness, in addition to the link to my
biography, below are links to my websites with photos and stories on my adventures
and misadventures as I retraced different portions of the saga. See the overall map below:
Dillon Wallace's
granddaughter, Amy McKendry, and I spent a week in 2008 researching in the
archives held at Memorial University in St. John’s and I spent a further 4 years of hard work in
writing the biography. Amy has written
the introduction. The front cover of
the biography is to the left. Double
click on it see it in larger format.
Click on it a 2nd time to see it still larger. The book is 220 pages in length and has 71 photos in colour. It is illustrated by a further 46 maps, many
of them with further colour photos embedded in them to show exactly what one
sees in the different locations.
The biography can be ordered
as a book or in all eReader formats. Double click here
for further information and to go to links for ordering the biography. A number of authors who have published books
on the North have reviewed the manuscript.
Double
click here to see their comments.
My solo canoe trip down the Naskaupi
River in 2005 to Seal Lake, which Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace and their
respective teams travelled up in 1905. (double click on the photo to
the left to go to the website):
My solo canoe trip down the first 140
kilometres of the George River in 2006, which was the last stage for the two
trips in 1905 as they made their way to Ungava Bay. Highlights for me
were the identification and exploration of the rapid which nearly cost Wallace
and Easton their lives and portaging past the spectacular Three Gorges. (double
click on the photo to the left to go to the website):
Since 2008, I have placed a plaque on
Mount Hubbard at the edge of Windbound Lake and explored Lakes Hope and Disappointment in canoe trips with Robert Irwin in 2009 to 2012. I've also
explored Goose Creek in 2012, searched in 2013 for the canoe abandoned in 1903 at the edge of the Beaver River, examined in 2013 the route taken by
Wallace on his return to Labrador in 1913, explored in 2013 a possible
archaeological site at Ungava Bay and
investigated in 2011 and 2012 a possible meteorite impact crater near the Hubbard Rock. In 2014 I explored the portaging mystery linked to the portage around the Maid Marion Gorge on the upper Naskaupi River that I had laid out in my biography on Dillon Wallace. (double click on the photo to the left to
go to the website on the above):
A number of people have expressed interest in knowing more about a couple of innovations by me as I resolved challenges in taking on the saga solo (fire-shield making it easy to cook with wood, simple rudder which replaced the “missing” canoeist, and an emergency back pack which reduced the risk of going solo). I also include a photo of my felt soled wading boots which make it much safer to line a canoe over slippery rocks. (double click on each photo below to see details)
