In the summer of 1903, two young explorers set out to chart the untracked wilderness of Labrador. Dillon Wallace, a lawyer-turned-adventurer, and his friend Leonidas Hubbard Jr., a writer and outdoorsman, dreamed of exploring a land few outsiders had ever seen. But their expedition soon turned into a desperate struggle for survival.
Poor planning, harsh conditions, and the unforgiving Labrador landscape conspired against them. As supplies dwindled and exhaustion mounted, both men faced the ultimate test of courage and endurance. Hubbard, fighting bravely until the very end, succumbed to starvation in the wild. Before his death, Wallace vowed to tell the story—and keep alive the dream of exploration they had shared.
That promise became The Lure of the Labrador Wild, first published in 1905. It is at once a tribute to Hubbard’s courage, a harrowing tale of survival, and a gripping account of the lure of the unknown. Wallace later honored their pact fully in The Long Labrador Trail, completing the expedition they had begun together.
🌲 Why this book still matters:
A classic of true survival and exploration literature
A story of friendship, loyalty, and sacrifice
Vivid descriptions of Labrador’s wild, desolate beauty
An inspiring testament to the human will to endure and discover
For readers of Jack London, Ernest Shackleton, and other great tales of adventure, The Lure of the Labrador Wild is both a thrilling story and a moving memorial to a fallen friend.
Dillon Wallace was born in Craigsville, New York in 1863. In 1888, he moved to New York City where he became a lawyer. In 1900, Wallace became friends with Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. the assistant-editor for Outing, an American nature magazine. Hubbard convinced the forty-year-old Wallace, to accompany him on the Labrador canoe trip of which Wallace wrote in "Lure of the Labrador Wild". Mistakenly taking the Susan River instead of the Naskaupi the trip ended in tragedy. Hubbard died of exhaustion and starvation before they were to escape the interior of Labrador in October 1903. Wallace returned to New York in 1904 with Hubbard's body and obtaining the rights to use Hubbard's field notes, maps and photographs from his widow wrote "Lure Of The Labrador Wild". Released in 1905 the book became an instant best seller in the United States and Canada. Mina Hubbard was not happy with the book. She thought it an unfair depiction of her late husband. Both Dillon Wallace and Mina Hubbard resolved to return to the Labrador to complete the unfulfilled objectives of the original expedition. The press depicted the two journeys as a race which Mina Hubbard won. Wallace wrote up his second expedition in this book "The Long Labrador Trail", released in 1907. He then turned to writing and exploring as a new career. In 1907 he published his first tale of fiction, "Ungava Bob". Subsequent journeys in other parts of North America were published as "Beyond The Mexican Sierras" (1910) and "Saddle And Camp In The Rockies" (1911). He wrote twenty-eight books many of them wilderness adventures for young boys. In 1911, Wallace moved to Beacon, New York, resumed his law practice and became heavily involved in the Scouting movement. Wallace's last published book, "The Camper's Handbook", appeared in 1936. He died in 1939.
