Caribou by Mary Alice Downie & Barbara Robertson & Elizabeth Jane Errington

Author:Mary Alice Downie & Barbara Robertson & Elizabeth Jane Errington
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2015-09-30T00:00:00+00:00

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Mina Hubbard

(1870–1956)

Mina Hubbard Ellis, née Benson, was born on a farm near Rice Lake to parents whose families had immigrated to the area in the 1840s. After an education that began in a one-room schoolhouse, she moved to New York and graduated as a nurse in 1899. After nursing journalist Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. through typhoid fever, she married him in 1901. Hubbard, who wrote for an outdoor adventure magazine, dreamed of a great adventure, and persuaded his editor to let him make an ambitious expedition through the barren lands of Labrador. The territory was unmapped and virtually unknown to the outside world. With his friend Dillon Wallace, a lawyer, and George Elson, a Scottish-Cree woodsman from northern Ontario, the group sailed for Labrador in June 1920. Due to their inexperience and virtually every mishap possible, they turned back before reaching the halfway point. Hubbard died of starvation in his tent while the others sought help. They returned with his body to New York in May. Wallace wrote a book about the ill-fated venture, but the young widow was displeased with his portrayal of her husband and withdrew her support for the project. Nevertheless, The Lure of the Labrador Wild became a perennial bestseller, going through many editions.

In 1905, Wallace planned to return to Labrador to complete the journey. Mina Hubbard secretly planned an expedition of her own — the press joyfully chronicled the contest. George Elson joined her with three other guides. The two groups departed a day apart, following different routes. Mina Hubbard, who had learned from the mistakes of the first trip, took proper supplies and reached her destination six weeks earlier than Wallace, thus winning the race. A Woman’s Way Through Unknown Labrador (1908), first published in Harper’s, is considered a more valuable guide than Wallace’s more popular The Long Labrador Trail (1907). After her return to the United States, she lectured widely on her Labrador experience. In 1907 she met Harold Ellis during a speaking tour in England and married him a year later. She stayed in England following their divorce in 1926, but returned often to Canada and remains an inspiration to those who continue to explore this beautiful and untamed land.

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