The Astronomer at Mint Gulch
by Jesse Keith Butler
One man asked me if we didn’t feel lonesome on our little earth. – Richard A. Fox, Dawson City, Yukon, 19301
In the solitude I found for myself at Mint Gulch, my days strayed to searching out the Yukon skies through wheeling months of night. My mind would strain for much more beyond the thin range of my flesh-shrouded eyes. I never found gold here. Does it make me misanthropic that instead I turned for solace to the long light of stars? I don’t yearn for your society. On any given topic there are other worlds I’ve known advanced far beyond ours. Here I came, long past, alone, to the Gulch, to be a Gulcher. Here I’ve stayed, still alone, save for those days I’ve trekked into town. Leave that be. All this planet’s brazen culture smears—like night-blown clouds—across the scope of the intellect.
Jesse Keith Butler is an award-winning poet from Ottawa, Ontario. He was a 2026 Writer in Residence at Berton House in Dawson City, Yukon, and won first prize in the inaugural ESU Formal Verse Contest. His second collection of poetry, Continuing City, is forthcoming from Bonfire Books in 2027. Find him at www.jessekeithbutler.ca.
From The People on Other Planets (Wetzel Publishing Co., 1930). Richard Fox (c. 1860-1950) was a Klondike gold prospector, odd job man, published author, and astral traveller. Yukon historian Michael Gates has done much of the work to uncover Richard Fox’s history, and you can read his account here: https://yukon-news.com/2025/04/07/history-hunter-richard-a-fox-a-yukon-star-rover/
