Hall's river trips in the traditional Beverly summer range from 1984 to 2011 included an extended section of the lower
Thelon River ending at Beverly Lake in 22 of those 28 years (Fig.
Doug--my canoeing partner in the
Thelon River country of Canada--would find us the next morning at 6:30, arriving in time to join us for the final trek to the ceremony site.
Samuel Hearne skirted to the south of the sources of the
Thelon River during his first trip inland from Churchill in 1770.
It's close to the
TheLon River, which flows into Baker Lake.
In the chapter called "The Spring That Never Came", (19) I learned about three gentlemen who, one by one, tried and failed to avoid starving in the winter of 1926-1927 on the banks of the
Thelon River, where our group of six would be travelling.
Along the
Thelon River they witness a Caribou migration and find themselves surrounded by a place in which the natural and the supernatural intersect.
Hall's book is a history, too, but a personal history of one outfitter and guide's thirty years' experiences, primarily on the
Thelon River, "almost dead centre in the Barren Lands." Focusing on the area's natural and geological history, it pays little attention to the indigenous people.
His contemporaries included well-known early barren lands trappers and adventurers such as John Hornby, who is most famous for starving to death on the
Thelon River, and Helge Ingstad, who gained public fame by co-discovering the Viking ruins at Vinland, Newfoundland, in 1960 (Ingstad and Ingstad, 1991).
And so begins an 800-kilometre canoe journey from the east arm of Great Slave Lake, following a traditional aboriginal route into caribou migratory lands, then paddling north on the
Thelon River to the site of Hornby's grave.
Tyrrell 23133 (CAN-40675); 8 mi below Hornby's Bend,
Thelon River, 63.96 [degrees] N, 103.907 [degrees] W, 29 Jul 1952, J.S.
Tyrrell and Guy Blanchet; eccentric John Hornby, who starved to death on the
Thelon River; muskox-seeking sport hunters Warburton Pike and Buffalo Jones; the Metis guides of the ubiquitous Beaulieu clan; famous author Ernest Thompson Seton; James Anderson and James Green Stewart, who canoed the Back River in 1855; early 20th century trappers Gus D'Aoust and Helge Ingstad; Dene hunter and trapper Noel Drybones; modern-day homesteaders Dave and Kristen Olesen; and Roger Catling, the last wolf hunter.
In 1961, Ernie inherited two wolf pups from the High Arctic and added a male pup from the
Thelon River. The wolves in captivity produced 28 pups while Ernie was studying their behavior and interactions.