Charles Howard Gates (known as Swiftwater Bill; April 7, 1854 – February 13, 1933) was an American
frontiersman and fortune hunter, and a fixture in stories of the
Klondike Gold Rush.
In one famous Klondike story he presented Dawson dance hall girl Gussie Lamore her weight in gold.
Gates was married briefly to Grace Lamore in 1898; he later married Bera Beebe, with whom he fathered two sons, Fredrick and Clifford. Gates subsequently abandoned her for 15-year-old Kitty Brandon, his niece. His biography ''The True Life Story of Swiftwater Bill Gates'' (c. 1908) was authored by Iola Beebe, his mother-in-law.
Gates was known to be at the gold fields of
Nome, Alaska
Nome (; ik, Sitŋasuaq, ) is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of Alaska, United States. The city is located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. It had a population of 3,699 recorded ...
at the same time as William H Gates I, grandfather of the Microsoft founder. However, despite the similarity in name and coincidences of gold, there is no apparent family relationship between "Swiftwater Bill" and
Microsoft founder
Bill Gates.
In fiction, he has been portrayed by
Gordon Pinsent in the 1985 film ''
Klondike Fever
''Klondike Fever'' is a 1980 Canadian adventure film, based on the writings of Jack London. It follows London's journey from San Francisco to the Klondike gold fields of the Yukon Territory, Canada in 1898.
Cast
* Jeff East as Jack London
* Rod ...
'' and
Colin Cunningham in the 2014 miniseries ''
Klondike''.
References
External links
*
*
1854 births
1933 deaths
American businesspeople
People of the Klondike Gold Rush
{{US-business-bio-1860s-stub