Charles H. Gates

Charles Howard Gates (known as Swiftwater Bill; April 7, 1854 – February 13, 1933) was an American <a href="/facts/Frontiersman/bD5RQgLP">frontiersman</a> and fortune hunter, and a fixture in stories of the <a href="/facts/Klondike_Gold_Rush/GBk6XjDt">Klondike Gold Rush</a>.
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 <a href="/facts/Nome_gold_rush/K81TkGyQ">Nome, Alaska</a> 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 <a href="/facts/Microsoft/nGIDDXdx">Microsoft</a> founder <a href="/facts/Bill_Gates/z16t4m7s">Bill Gates</a>.
In fiction, he has been portrayed by <a href="/facts/Gordon_Pinsent/FlzEqoTP">Gordon Pinsent</a> in the 1985 film <a href="/facts/Klondike_Fever/eM0v8pqH">Klondike Fever</a> and <a href="/facts/Colin_Cunningham/9r5STuDx">Colin Cunningham</a> in the 2014 miniseries <a href="/facts/Klondike_(miniseries)/c5noHFj5">Klondike</a>.

Charles H. Gates open-in-new

Charles H. Gates