{{Short description|American frontiersman and fortune hunter}} {{sources|date=September 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}} {{Use American English|date=December 2022}} '''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.<ref>{{cite web|title = Gates, Charles H. (1855–1933), Clark County, Wisconsin History & Genealogy|url = https://www.wiclarkcountyhistory.org/0data/16/16906.htm|access-date = 2024-03-08}}</ref>
In one famous Klondike story he presented Dawson dance hall girl Gussie Lamore her weight in gold.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110291712/swiftwater-bill-gates-most-spectacular/ |title=Swiftwater Bill Gates: Most Spectacular and Most Married Miner Ever Produced by the Golden North |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |agency=Reprinted from ''The Seattle Times'' |page=12 |date=1908-08-01 |access-date=2022-09-27 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> 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 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'' and Colin Cunningham in the 2014 miniseries ''Klondike''.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Swiftwater Bill Gates |birth=1860 |death=1935}} * {{Cite news |url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19970716&slug=2549823 |first=Ross |last=Anderson |newspaper=The Seattle Times |title=The Dawson City gold rush had its own Bill Gates |date=July 16, 1997}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gates, Charles Howard}} Category:1854 births Category:1933 deaths Category:American businesspeople Category:People of the Klondike Gold Rush Category:Frontiersmen
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