The lower section of the Thelon River from the "Half-Way Hills" (midway between Schultz Lake and Baker Lake)Barren-ground caribou above the Hanbury River junction near the Thelon River in 1978
The drainage basin of the Thelon River encompasses some 142,400 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi).[4] Located far from almost all human development, the Thelon and its surroundings are entirely pristine wilderness. It has been described as Canada's remotest river.[6]
The river has a width of up to a kilometre (0.6 mi) along much of its lower section, widening into Beverly, Aberdeen, and Schultz Lakes about 100 kilometres (62 mi) upstream from its mouth at Baker Lake.
Fauna
Approximately 100 moose and more than 2,000 muskoxen forage on the land around the Thelon. 300,000 migrating Barren-ground Caribou cross the river every fall and spring.
History
Inuit – including Caribou Inuit and Copper Inuit – have long occupied the sparsely-populated lands around the Thelon. Artifacts of Inuit hunting and travel (including inukshuk guide stones) are readily observed near the river.
In 1770–71 English explorer Samuel Hearne crossed the Thelon while exploring Canada's northern interior. James William Tyrrell led an expedition through the area in 1900.[7]
Over the winter of 1926–27 John Hornby starved to death on the Thelon along with two other men. They had planned to hunt migrating caribou, but failed to find the herd. Nevertheless, on the basis of Hornby's earlier explorations with James Charles Critchell Bullock in 1923, the Thelon Game Sanctuary was established in 1927, renamed the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary in 1956.
In 1990 the lower 545 kilometres (339 mi) of the Thelon were designated a Canadian Heritage River. Although there is no road access to the river, a number of wilderness campers and canoeists visit the Thelon every summer.
