- John Oakhurst
One of the story's heroes, Oakhurst is occasionally frank but kind in motivation. He is chivalrous, insisting upon switching his good riding horse Five Spot for the mule of the Duchess and refusing to use vulgar language. He further shows his good nature by returning the $40 he had won from Tom Simson in a card game and saying, "Tommy, you're a good little man, but you can't gamble worth a cent. Don't try it over again." Oakhurst is not a drinker. He is cool tempered, even keeled and has a calm manner about him. He believes in luck and fate. His suicide spurs the question whether he was simply giving in to his bad luck or rather, decided he was no longer going to live by luck and took his life.
- The Duchess, a young woman.
- Mother Shipton, another woman.
- Uncle Billy, a "suspected sluice-robber and confirmed drunkard".
- Tom Simson, a naïve young man who has run away from the Sandy Bar mining camp with Piney Woods and intends to marry her at Poker Flat.
- Piney Woods, a "a stout, comely damsel of fifteen" who is engaged to Simson.
