Leonidas Hubbard - Ill-fated Expedition

Ill-fated Expedition

From the start (departing North West River on July 15), the expedition was beset with mistakes and problems. Instead of ascending the Naskaupi River, by mistake they followed the shallow Susan Brook. After hard long portaging and almost reaching Lake Michikamau, with food supplies running out, on September 15 at Windbound lake, they decided to turn back. On October 18, Wallace and Elson went in a search of cached store of flour, leaving Hubbard behind in a tent. Hubbard died of exhaustion and starvation on either same or next day. Wallace got lost in the snowstorm, while Elson, after a week of bushwhacking, building raft to cross swollen rivers (with no ax), reached the nearest occupied cabin. A search party found Wallace alive on October 30, 1903.

After Wallace was nursed back to health (he suffered gangrene in his foot), the two men accompanied Hubbard's body back to New York for burial in May 1904.

In 1905, Mina Hubbard and Dillon Wallace led two competitive expeditions from North West River to the Hudson's Bay Company post at the mouth of George River. Both were successful. George Elson accompanied Mina Hubbard.

In 1913, Wallace returned with Judge William Malone and Gilbert Blake to place a memorial plaque where his friend perished (53°45′58.96″N 61°28′21.98″W / 53.7663778°N 61.4727722°W / 53.7663778; -61.4727722). Their canoe overturned on Beaver River and the plaque was lost. Wallace then created a memorial using white paint and a brush made from Gilbert's hair. In July 1977, with the assistance of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Dillon Wallace III, the son of Hubbard's companion, and Rudy Mauro placed a replica of the lost plaque on the inscribed stone at Hubbard's last camp. The inscription reads:

The 1903 and 1905 expeditions were the subject of a 2008 Canadian docudrama The Last Explorer, directed by Elson's great nephew, Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond.