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With the passing years I
had a growing desire to visit again the scene of Hubbard’s last camp at
the head of the Susan River Valley. I wished to permanently and
appropriately mark the spot where he so heroically met death. Such
conscientious devotion to duty, such unwavering faith in God in the hour
of trial, and such noble, self-sacrificing heroism as Hubbard displayed
are too rare in the world to go unrecognized. I felt that somewhere a
memorial should be erected to him, a tribute to these qualities, and
there seemed no more appropriate spot upon which to erect it than the
place where he so bravely met his death.
No year has passed since
my return from Labrador in 1904 in which I have not received numerous
letters from men and women who have been inspired to nobler ideals of
life by Hubbard’s example. Judge William J. Malone, of Bristol,
Connecticut, was one of these. Through a letter which he wrote me some
five years ago I made his acquaintance, and our acquaintance ripened
into friendship.
It became possible for me
to return to Labrador in the summer of 1913, and I decided to take
advantage of this opportunity to carry into execution my wish to mark
the spot where Hubbard died. I mentioned this one day to Judge Malone.
He not only expressed his hearty sympathy with the undertaking, but
volunteered to accompany me.
Judge Malone is an experienced
wilderness traveler. He had already made several journeys into remote
regions of the Hudson Bay country, was a good canoeman, a good packer,
and thoroughly familiar with the discomforts and hardships of sub-arctic
trails. I have never tramped a wilderness trail or sat by a campfire at
the end of a hard day’s work with a more companionable man. I was,
indeed, fortunate in securing his cooperation.
In discussing our route
it was decided that we should explore the lower Beaver River, between
Grand Lake and the point where Hubbard discovered and entered it on his
inland journey, and where we abandoned our canoe on our retreat, to
re-cross to the Susan River valley. Nothing was known of this section
of the Beaver River, nor of its characteristics. The route that Judge
Malone and I were to take, therefore, as we outlined it, was to be up
the Beaver until we came upon Hubbard’s old trail, then over Hubbard’s
portage trail to Goose Creek, and thence down Goose Creek to the Susan
River.
We made our plans known
at once to some of Hubbard’s most intimate friends. A committee was
appointed, and under the supervision of this committee a beautiful
bronze tablet
was designed and cast, inscribed with the following words:
This tablet marks the
scene of the tragic death from exhaustion on October 18, 1903, of
Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., intrepid explorer and practical Christian.
Erected by loving friends June, 1913. John XIV.-4: And whither I go ye
know, and the way ye know.
This was to be erected on
the big rock at Hubbard’s last camp.
Hubbard’s only sister,
Mrs. Arthur C. Williams, of Detroit Michigan, who was deeply interested
in our undertaking, also contributed a silk flag, and a college pennant
which had belonged to Hubbard when he was a student in the University of
Michigan. These were to be draped upon the tablet when it was finally
fixed upon the rock, and left with it in the wilderness.
We were provided with
necessary drills, cold chisels, hammers, lugs and cement to properly and
firmly set the tablet. A canoe, camp equipment and other outfit were
purchased, and on June 21, 1913, I sailed from New York on the Red Cross
Line steamship Stephano. Judge Malone joined me in Halifax, Nova
Scotia, where the Stephano touched, and on June 26 we reached St.
John’s, Newfoundland, where we were to transship to the northward bound
Labrador mail boat, the Invermore, on June 27.
Beset by wind
and rain and fog, our voyage northward was an unpleasant one, until, on
July 1, the weather cleared sharp and cold, and as we steamed across the
Strait of Belle, the low, rock-bound coast of Labrador, still harboring
many snow drifts, and stretching away in lonely desolation, loomed into
view.
The rediscovery of Hubbard’s camp in 1973 created a renewed interest in
the bronze plaque lost in the Beaver River, including the question of
its weight. This detail is nowhere to be found in Wallace’s accounts of
the 1913 journey. The New York Times reported on 23 October 1913 that
friends of Wallace had expressed concern at not hearing from him since
early September, when he set out alone up the Labrador coast. The report
went on to say that Judge Malone and Gilbert Blake, who returned to
civilization two months previously, had described the lost tablet as
weighing sixty pounds.
Next: Chapter
VI:
Will The Ice Turn Us Back? |