"It is the richness of human experience, layered on top of the natural splendour of the river valley and its wildlife, that really sets the Thelon apart. The place has a history, both Native and non-Native, which gives it standing beyond the intrinsic value of wilderness itself."
David Pelly writes as one who has been there time and again. He knows the Thelon from personal experience. As a freelance writer for 20 years, he has travelled many parts of the Arctic, but claims that "nowhere draws me back more powerfully than the Thelon."
David F. Pelly, a modern-day explorer of the North’s cultural landscape, has lived in and travelled throughout the Arctic since the late 1970s. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles on the land and its people, including Ukkusiksalik, The Old Way North, and Sacred Hunt. Much of his writing is based on oral history shared with him by Inuit elders. For this work, he was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012 and appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2025. He now lives near Ottawa.