John Schnabel was an Alaskan gold miner known for his participation on the Discovery Channel reality series Gold Rush. The show, which premiered in 2010 as Gold Rush: Alaska, follows various crews who mine the gold placer deposits of the Yukon Territory. He appeared on 43 episodes of the series in all.
Schnabel, who owned a claim to the Big Nugget mine in Porcupine Creek, Alaska, acted as the family’s patriarch. During the second season of the series he stepped down and gave the Big Nugget mine to his grandson, Parker Schnabel. The elder Schnabel also appeared on the series Gold Rush: South America and Gold Rush: The Dirt, a talk show that went behind the scenes with the series executive producer, Christo Doyle.
John Schnabel was an Alaskan gold miner known for his participation on the Discovery Channel reality series Gold Rush. The show, which premiered in 2010 as Gold Rush: Alaska, follows various crews who mine the gold placer deposits of the Yukon Territory. He appeared on 43 episodes of the series in all.
Schnabel, who owned a claim to the Big Nugget mine in Porcupine Creek, Alaska, acted as the family’s patriarch. During the second season of the series he stepped down and gave the Big Nugget mine to his grandson, Parker Schnabel. The elder Schnabel also appeared on the series Gold Rush: South America and Gold Rush: The Dirt, a talk show that went behind the scenes with the series executive producer, Christo Doyle.
Schnabel was born in Kansas, and moved to Alaska in 1939. He bought a claim to the mine in 1984 and remained active in it until 2014.
He died March 18, 2016, in Alaska. He was 96.
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