The drainage basin of the Thelon River encompasses some 142,400 square kilometres (55,000 sq mi).

Artifacts of Inuit hunting and travel (including inukshuk guide stones) are readily observed near the river.

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.

The basin of the Thelon is mentioned in the 1979 sci-fi novel Beetle in the Anthill by Boris and Arkady Strugatsky as the location of the embassy of Golovans: intelligent canoid (dog-like) race evolved at Saraksh planet.