John Schnabel was born on the 11th February, 1920, in Kansas, and died on the 18th March 2016, in Haines, Alaska, USA. He was a well known gold miner in Alaska and a shareholder of the legendary gold mine called The Big Nugget Mine. His son, Roger Schnabel is co-owner of the above mentioned mine. John Schnabel was a former mayor who served in Haines, Alaska. However, the main sources of Schnabel net worth were mining and television.
How rich was the legendary miner? According to the estimations made at the time of his death, the net worth of John Schnabel was as much as $5 million.
John Schnabel Net Worth $5 Million
To start with, John was born on a wheat farm located in Kansas. Unfortunately, the family he grew up in lost their farm during the great depression,and decided to move to Alaska. Being 12 years old, he started working as a paper boy – when he received his first salary, he managed to buy bread and cheese to nourish the family members. Later, he moved to Haines, Alaska, as John somehow felt that it was the place where he could be very successful. In 1984, Schnabel bought a claim in Porcupine Creek, Alaska, where he mined, and which later became well known as the Big Nugget Mine, and is where the 2nd, 3rd and 5th seasons of the reality television series “Gold Rush” (2010– present) aired on Discovery channel were shot. John Schnabel himself appeared in the 1st to 6th seasons as a recurring guest star, which added significant sums to the total size of Schnabel net worth and popularity. It is worth mentioning the fact that a lot of members from Schnabel family take part in the above mentioned reality series, too. Even though John suffered a heart attack during the 2nd season, he managed to recover and came back to the show.
In 2011, John decided to slow down and assigned the operation of the Big Nugget Mine to his grandson, Parker Schnabel, although he was only 17 years old at that time. However, John had not left the mine, and was advising his grandson, and actually Parker had to leave, so John resumed his former position and ran the mine despite his respectable age. Talking about mining, John Schnabel was a legendary miner who once found fifty ounces of gold in one day. Of course, that increased the outright size of John Schnabel net worth at once.
In February, 2016 John celebrated his 96th birthday and in March, 2016 he passed away. It has been reported that his death was caused by prostate cancer. A two hour special television show to honour John Schnabel has been aired on Discovery Channel. John Schnabel was buried at the Jones Point cemetery next to his late brother, uncle, father and other relatives.
Finally, in the personal life of the miner, he was married to Irma Schnabel from 1950, and they have one son named Roger and two grandsons.
