Gordon C. Bettles

Gordon Charles Bettles (1859 18 May 1945) was a Canadian-American fur trader, shopkeeper, prospector, and newspaperman active in 19th century Interior Alaska. He established the trading post that would become Bettles, Alaska. He referred to himself as the "Rat-skin-and-bean trader of the North".

Early life and career Bettles was born in Canada East in 1859. He had worked as a compositor at the Detroit Free Press in his youth. He began mining in Colorado from 1882 to 1884, and later worked as a prospector and cowboy in Montana, Idaho, and Washington from 1884 to 1886. This included stints driving a packtrain to Coeur d'Alene and mining at Libby Creek, Montana.

In 1888, Bettles was twenty-seven years old and eager to make his fortune. He had been mining for silver in Montana, but he abandoned his claims when he heard about a gold discovery on the Fortymile River in what was then Canada's North-West Territories.

Arctic Village By 1890 a group of miners discovered gold on Koyukuk tributaries north of the Arctic Circle, and Bettles responded by forming G.C. Bettles & Co. and ordered 20 tons of supplies. "From a pickaxe to a candle" was the company's motto in newspaper ads. Four years later he opened a store, or "beanshop" as the miners called them, at a place along the Koyukuk he called Arctic Village. Business was slow in the early years because only a handful of men were willing to brave harsh winters and prospect the frozen Koyukuk gravel bars. In addition to running his store, Bettles owned the Yukon River steamboats, the Cora and the Koyukuk, and traded with Alaska Native trappers for the furs of marten, red and silver fox, beaver, and mink. Early in his career as a shopkeeper, Bettles earned a reputation for generosity because he freely offered miners a "grubstake" of food and supplies that they could pay back when they found their gold. In 1925, he was "accredited with the greatest cinnabar discovery the world has ever known" near Bethel, Alaska. In 1928, he had discovered substantial platinum deposits near Goodnews Bay, Alaska.

Personal life Bettles had a brother, James. Bettles had a daughter, Marguerite Bettles Golder. The family moved down to Fairbanks in 1906 where Marguerite graduated from school.

In 1890, Bettles was among the vigilante party that executed the Koyukuk Indian who killed John Bremner. He became a charter member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers, an organization formed to bring order and ethical conduct to the emerging gold camps.

Legacy The Bettles River was named in his honor in 1899. Besides the city of Bettles, the outposts established by Gordon Bettles have since become ghost towns or have disappeared entirely.