Hulbert was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, on April 30, 1829. He was the son of John Hulbert (or Hurlbut) and Maria Elvendorf Schoolcraft, and a descendant of Thomas Hurlbut who emigrated to America in the seventeenth century and settled in Connecticut. His father was sutler to the garrison at Fort Brady, Sault Ste. Marie; his mother was the sister of Henry R. Schoolcraft.
In 1852, after the Michigan copper district had been opened to settlement, Hulbert went there on a road survey and acted as surveyor and engineer for several coppermining companies. For a time he was engaged as copyist of maps in the United States Land Office at Sault Ste. Marie, in which employment he familiarized himself with the surface features of the Keweenaw Peninsula, then recently opened to copper-mining development. Resuming his work as surveyor in this copper region, he found samples of copper-bearing breccia and began a search for the mother lode, which was rewarded in the years 1858 and 1859. His discoveries were on the site of the later-developed Calumet and Hecla copper mine.
Hulbert had carried forward his search for this mother lode with the greatest secrecy; but in order to realize on his discovery it was necessary for him to secure the land containing the lode. His first purchase was from the United States government, to which he later added a tract obtained from the St. Mary's Mineral Land Company, recipient of a large federal land grant in compensation for the construction of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie. He then organized the Hulbert Mining Company, to work the property, but the Civil War retarded its development.
In 1864 and 1866 openings were made on the site of the lode and rich copper deposits were uncovered. To assist in financing these mining ventures at Calumet, Hulbert had recourse to Boston capitalists for loans secured by his stock holdings in his Michigan mines. He was temporarily employed as superintendent of these mines but eventually lost both his employment there and his stock interest in the company, leading to years of controversy and litigation with Quincy A. Shaw of Boston, and others. Apparently in consideration of the receipt of a stipulated regular income Hulbert withdrew his suit against Shaw and the Calumet and Hecla Company, left the country, and resided in Rome, Italy, until his death.
He is remembered mainly for his discovery of the Calumet conglomerate, copper-bearing deposits in the Calumet copper district of northern Michigan. Although these achievements were for a time called into question, there are probably today no mining men of standing in the Lake Superior mining region who doubt that the discovery was made largely as Hulbert claimed to have effected it. He recorded his labors and discoveries in the Michigan copper district in Calumet-Conglomerate (1893), followed in 1899 by Calumet-Conglomerate Discovery.
He was a member of the Michigan legislature, 1875-76, and member of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, 1874-86.
On October 22, 1856, Hulbert married Frances C. Harback.
