Literary notes about gulch (AI summary)
In literature, “gulch” is often used to evoke rugged, dramatic landscapes that serve as both physical settings and symbols of isolation or impending challenge. Writers describe it as a narrow, steep-sided ravine that characters might traverse in moments of tension or discovery—for instance, a descent into a scene of confrontation or the quiet isolation of nature ([1], [2]). At times it is rendered as a boundary marking ominous or significant transitions, as in passages where characters face the natural world’s raw power or enter territory laden with mystery ([3], [4]). In several works, notably those by Bret Harte, the gulch not only defines a geographical locale but also becomes entwined with communal fate and personal destiny ([5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10]). This multifaceted depiction underscores the gulch’s dual role as both a scenic backdrop and a metaphor for life’s unpredictable challenges ([11]).
- A few moments more would have brought them face to face at the foot of the gulch; when she stopped there were not fifty yards between them.
— from Snow-Bound at Eagle's by Bret Harte - We went rattling down the gulch behind five mules.
— from Pardners by Rex Beach - Over the snowy bridge thus formed, the momentum carried the remainder straight across the gulch.
— from The Rocky Mountain Wonderland by Enos A. Mills - Look! he will fall to that deep gulch ten trees' length below, where no one can get at him."
— from Red Hunters and the Animal People by Charles Alexander Eastman - As the long, dry summer withered to its roots, the school term of Red Gulch—to use a local euphuism—“dried up” also.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Only when the gulch which marked the uttermost limit of Poker Flat was reached, the leader spoke briefly and to the point.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - And the stage-door closed on the Idyl of Red Gulch.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - On the long summer days The Luck was usually carried to the gulch from whence the golden store of Roaring Camp was taken.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Then he walked up the gulch past the cabin, still whistling with demonstrative unconcern.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Higher up the gulch they found the body of its unlucky owner; but the pride, the hope, the joy, The Luck, of Roaring Camp had disappeared.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - Below, the largest piece of this, a wreck in a mass of mud, floated slowly down the slope in a shallow, moderately tilted gulch.
— from The Spell of the Rockies by Enos A. Mills
