John Schnabel, one of the stars of the Discovery Channel reality series Gold Rush who owned the Big Nugget mine in Porcupine Creek, Alaska, died Friday morning in his sleep, according to his family. He was 96.
Born in Kansas in 1920, Schnabel was during his life a bootlegger who fled to Alaska to escape the authorities and later, a soldier in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He married Erma Dire in 1950 and the couple went on to have five children together. He…![]()
