"327)\fs40} On this Gold Rush" "It's hard to die." "We say farewell to a legend." "I wish you good luck." "and celebrate his life." "I love you." "I love you too." "Bye bye." "Bye Grandpa." "Bye bye." "My Grandpa is an amazing man." "He's been such a huge inspiration to me." "All of the greatest say that I feel I've done is instilled in my grandson." "You gotta try." "Don't ever give up." "Where I am now." "I owe 100 percent of it to my Grandpa." "Parker has been extremely successful." "I'm proud of him." "That's probably the greatest gift that he's ever given me." "And I always wanted to follow in his footsteps." "I can only hope that someday I can be half the man he is." "Hey Grandpa." "Hello oh." "I'm good." "Give me a hug." "Ha ha ha." "Oh." "John Schnabel was an inspiration to his grandson." "Both as a man. and as a gold miner." "the gold mining legend visited his grandson at his Yukon claim." "There's a lot of pleasant things in life I like to still do and one of them is to come and see how you're doing." "Thank you." "I get the same feeling." "Why don't I go take you on a tour of the place." "I'd appreciate that." "here's our operation." "Ahh" "Wow." "That is an impressive area." "Gawd this is just unbelievable." "were you?" "like you." "All work and no play." "you gotta think big." "in the same category as my ancestors and myself." "400)}Parker is about the same age as John was when he left his home and moved to Alaska." "To take off and head to the Yukon is no different than John Schnabel going to Alaska." "386)}You look at that similarity and that vision that they both had and you think." "Are these two peas in a pod." "physically between John and Parker is shocking even to me." "that is like a mini me." "I think Parker and John both have always liked that kind of similarity thing." "I think they have gotten a big chuckle out of that." "they're alike in a lot of ways." "They're alike in a lot of ways." "I would like to have been around something like this while I was younger." "a lot of people ask me why we went so big this year." "ha ha." "I mean that's part of it but." "I think a lot of it is that it's been running in the family for a long time too." "Yes." "John grew up the son of a Kansas wheat farmer." "raised in a rather poverty stricken atmosphere." "Our biggest challenge was to make enough money to buy a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese." "and his family had lost their farm." "I packed up everything I have." "I came to Haines Alaska on a steam ship." "1939." "husky and worked hard." "and I was in a place where I had a chance to be a success." "Parker." "I think it's a wonderful thing you're doing." "There's not many teenagers take on something of this magnitude." "Thanks Grandpa." "Parker's success as a gold miner is built on the skills he learned as a child on his grandfather's gold mine." "huh." "yes." "Ha ha ha." "I congratulate you." "I actually bought Big Nigget mine as a destination to take my children in the summertime." "find a little gold." "but my grandsons did." "So we go up there and there's nobody there but us." "And so we just had a hang of a good time." "It was like his playground." "And then the interest in the mining just evolved." "he was up there having a great time and doing a little panning." "He was up there having a great time and doing a little mining." "He'd find a good spot where there was gold that was accumulating." "I said to him "Whatever ends up here is yours." "he's getting gold." "he spent all his youth and every summer at Big Nugget mine." "Beep beep beep." "you know." "You want a couple of eggs Parker?" "You're gonna have cereal or what?" "Ha ha ha ha ha." "Gotcha." "He looks like a person that's never..." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "I realized how connected they were." "That that bond was bigger than I even saw." "Parker quickly took to the business of gold mining." "That's about a" "I woild judge close to half an ounce." "I bet." "275 grains." "That's a" "I was right." "Pretty close." "Yeah." "that first season I had a lot of good times with my Grandpa." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha." "He had a great time." "Parker has taken what started out as a really fun thing to do in the summer." "Work on equipment." "Hang out with your Grandpa." "Not have your mom telling you what to do." "I mean I think he was learning a lot without really knowing it." "I think Parker as an unbelievable pleasure to watch." "Parker was given more and more freedom." "John handed over the mine to his grandson." "I've had 25 very good productive years at the mine." "I have faith in your management that it will be successful." "Thanks." "Shake." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha." "That's a big day for me." "I must be doing something right for my Grandpa to put this much faith in me." "That's quite an honor." "Because he's an amazing man." "he is a hero." "But that's what he's always been." "I think Parker probably always had it in his heart that he wanted to gave him that opportunity." "spark." "In his kids and grandkids and trying to help fulfill that." "It'll be my claim to fame." "Ha ha ha." "Coming up" "It's 2016 when John's health takes a rapid turn for the worse." "I can't imagine the possibility of getting your foot amputated at 96." "Hopefully he's not quite ready to die." "John Schnabel was Parker's gold mining inspiration and his mentor." "I have to admire your operation." "It looks like you got it down pretty good." "Thanks Grandpa." "I can remember when that was." "You finally took over the mine." "." "Umm? "You only run 200 tons a day." "I gotta have 600." Ha ha ha ha." "John would keep a watchful eye on him." "16 year old Parker was responsible for the mine's success or failure." "I don't see anything yet." "A few flakes is all we got." "I doubt if we made a dollar." "In no time at all Parker was running the mine at a loss." "we might as well go home." "It's a test." "That's what it is." "eventually you'll hit it." "Yeah." "Have patience." "because" "It also provided an opportunity for my father to teach somebody." "you back off and let them do their thing." "and they're entitled to." "learn the hard way." "Going up." "Wow." "I'm pretty lucky." "John stood back to let him fix it himself." "Ow." "getting his excavator stuck on the truck." "Come on." "Come on." "Thank God." "Only after Parker failed did John step in to offer a safer solution." "I strongly urge you to hook onto the back end with a cable." "Pull it out backwards." "Put it around and we'll hook it back to the other end of the truck." "There you go." "That's the right way." "they pulled the rock truck out of the ditch in seconds." "Stop." "Ha ha ha." "I'm" "Sorry." "I'm gonna go home." "It proved one thing that even when he made a mistake and he didn't cry and lay down." "And even learned to appreciate my advice." "Sorry." "I'm happy." "We got it out of there." "the role one sometimes it's frustrating as your father said to me." "Aw dad." "Let me make my own mistakes." "And I think you've got a lot of the same blood in you." "It can't be bad." "and I make a lot of my own mistakes." "Ha ha ha ha." "Well everybody makes them every day no matter how perfect you are." "000 bucks apiece." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "but guided Parker as best he could." "So we dug quite the hole here." "there's no gold." "and to me too." "I got lots." "that slope indicates that the main channel is over that way." "And you'll come across it pretty soon." "That means we got a lot of dirt to move." "nothing gained." "he never gives up." "and go after that." "Parker was like a sponge." "He was getting a heck of an education." "There was just no doubt about it." "but." "a lot." "Parker and his crew dug deep." "In search of a gold rich channel." "and Parker is a workaholic." "Whoa ho." "Holy cow." "Look at the nuggets there." "Thats what we're used to seeing." "Good job guys." "You found that channel we're looking for." "Quarter ounce nuggets." "Parker's hard work paid off." "He'd taken responsibility." "found the gold he needed to make the mine pay for itself." "the greatest thing that I feel I've done is instill in my grandson "Never forget." "You gotta try." "Don't ever give up." "Coming up." "John reflects on the extraordinary changes he's witnessed in his 96 year lifespan." "the world changed." "Yeah." "he decided to go to the moon." "Remember that time when my brother and dad came up and we built that road up to Smith Creek." "I remember." "I was scared to death." "the road up Smith Creek was waterlogged and unstable." "John stepped in to keep his family safe." "That don't look solid to me." "I see the water coming through the rocks." "Well." "Can we clean it up and use that same road." "and join the rest of the people where Heaven is." "What now." "We have no way of getting up there." "No dirt to run through the plant." "It's damn tough to see someone die because of your judgement." "I've had a dozen people killed working for me." "I don't want to see you have to go through that." "No way." "you don't know how you're gonna feel when you go up to somebody's wife and tell her there's been an accident." "I love you." "I don't want you to have to walk through some of the miseries that I've had to walk through." "Responsibility is a burden." "Really." "Let's build a safe road and take that out of the picture." "it's damn sight cheaper than somebody being hauled out of here on a stretcher." "You're right." "Grandpa insisted on a new safe road up the hill." "But Parker couldn't build it without his father and brother." "Can we go to a safe haven and blow this thing up." "(warning horn)" "Fire in the hole." "246)}BLAM" "236)}BLAM" "My dad's just kind of a always full speed ahead kind of guy." "I like that because when he's up here we get a lot done." "That's the way he does." "386)}What makes this Schnabel man so unique right now is that there's 3 generations of them interacting regularly." "They all have this common interest in this common skill set." "And I think how unbelievably rare that is." "my Grandpa's here." "Now we got the A Team." "I'm ready to do whatever they want me to do." "Uh huh." "like 17 or 18 years all the way to 91." "all working and actually all participating in something." "We're close to the top." "We're gonna do it." "We're gonna do it." "See why I got my dad up here." "He kicks ass." "386)}It was a great experience to just come up and do that and I'm always available to help Parker if he needs it." "Whoo." "he has learned already that he cannot do it alone." "That formula holds true." "We have presently a very very close knit family that works wonderfully well together." "I'm deeply appreciative and thankful that we had these years together." "working with my dad." "10 years." "Um huh." "But but." "right." "Right." "Parker made the biggest decision of his life." "The young pioneer left his family and his home to set up his own mine in the gold fields of the Klondike." "at about the same age that John was when he left home and came to Alaska." "that whole coincidence is not lost on us." "bigger production and so." "He made the decision to quit digging out of that mine." "for the last few years." "It's taught me a lot." "and flies out of the nest." "He never comes back." "For help." "Ha ha ha ha." "You're gonna be on your own." "You're gonna be a success." "Huh." "I hope you're right." "I know so." "I wish I could just take my Grandpa with me." "the Yukon is the place to be." "Grandpa John believed Parker was ready to blaze his own trail." "Just as the original gold miners did back in the late 1800's" "That's a fantastic step." "he would have to work with." "That didn't shake him at all." "He went and proved that he could cope with it." "Coming up:" "John's last birthday party." "♬Happy birthday dear Grandpa. ♪ ♪ Happy birthday to you. ♪♬" "It's great to be loved." "How's your health doing?" "but the rest of me is a little older." "Ha ha." "I hope you don't have to face some of the problems I have." "John has confonted death." "Ha ha." "Hello Parker." "I'm doing fine." "I'm kinda sorry I missed you all week." "I wanted to get up to the mine but I just felt a little bit uncomfortable with driving so I stayed home." "I'm glad you're down here." "Glad to see you." "How come you can't get up there?" "medical problems." "it's a little early." "I'm only 92." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "be confident that I will make it through this." "That I have a good chance of surviving it." "And I'll be back." "Okay?" "really sick to the point where I think all of us did not think he would recover." "again it looked like he might never make it back." "My Grandpa's probably" "The most important person in my life and." "um." "I don't know what I'll do without him." "you want him to live more." "You want him to live more." "you know there's a good chance that..." "Every time I see him might be the last time." "And one of these times it will be." "if you want to use that term." "I never give up on my family." "ah." "My family all show great love towards me." "is trying to stay here." "What you need is to let us take care of you okay." "it's a thrill dad." "that's all." "I think it's great." "John rejoined his family back home in Haines." "Parker." "I've had some very difficult periods in my life and I think that the most difficult was when I finally realized I was as the doctor was very unkind." "He says "you have aggressive cancer." "I says "Can't you find a better adjective than the word aggressive?" Ha ha ha." "it's a.." "I know this winter everybody was pretty worried." "John was diagnosed with fast growing prostrate cancer." "This will probably be my last trip up to the mine because" "The doctors are taking me off all medicines to go on the chemo-therapy." "suicide." "When John feared he wouldn't survive the winter." "We can't live forever." "with his grandsons Parker and Payson." "because." "Look at where he's gotten me." "well by god we're gonna go figure out what's in some hole in the ground." "I'm impressed." "Hold it." "Hey is that my dad I hear?" "I'll be darned." "Ha ha ha ha." "Roger." "I didn't know you were up here." "Even Roger joined the boys to help his father before winter closed in." "I am truly surprised to see you all working up there on that dirt pile." "Good strike." "You know this is a big dream of yours and hopefully we will make it come true." "I think we all share that thought." "if there's two things my Grandpa loves it's his family and taking on a challenge." "I think that's why he was so stoked about what we're doing." "were all pitching in." "we fought a little bit but we worked together to make it happen." "I think that meant a lot to him." "You find anything?" "Grandpa?" "Oh my." "that is beautiful." "Here's another one." "Isn't that awesome?" "I won't be able to sleep." "Ha ha." "Either the chemo-therapy he dreaded so much." "Payson." "Ha ha ha." "gave John the strength to beat the cancer." "The mine is tied to my health." "a really health farm for me." "Mentally as well as physically." "and two years later even made it to Parker's biggest ever gold count." "Parker." "You don't know how pleased and proud I am of you." "you started to mine." "You got a hundred and some ounces." "000 ounces." "What a fantastic change in your life." "and you stayed with it till you won." "what more?" "What more could I ask for?" "Nothing." "I am lucky." "A very fortunate man." "Give him a hug you big goon." "Give a big hug." "Come on Parker." "(laughter) I love you Parker." "I not only love you." "I'm proud of you." "You made my life worthwhile." "Coming up" "I love you." "I love you too." "John's final farewell to Parker." "John's health took a serious turn for the worse." "it required immediate surgery." "I can't imagine the possibility of getting your foot amputated at 96." "Hopefully he's not quite ready to die." "John Schnabel was admitted to a hospital in Oakland California for urgent surgery to try and save his infected leg." "I'm a little nervous just cause I really don't know what to expect." "Um." "Hey Grandpa." "Well hello Parker." "Good to see you." "I'm glad that you've dropped by." "I couldn't get out of this bed." "had to lift me out." "I seem talking kind of jerky." "it's not normal but things aren't normal period." "I was wondering how you were doing." "I was told by the doctor that everything is worked out well." "Ha ha." "Good." "I can lift some things up now." "Couldn't do that the other day." "Hmm hmm hmm." "Hold something." "Alright." "I'm doing alright." "that led to blockages that kept the blood from adequately getting down to his foot." "We did a real long bypass from the groin down to the ankle level." "And that's working well." "And he's got new supply to his foot and now the ulcers will begin to heal and most important immediately the pain goes away." "000 likes." "Wow." "Wow." "A hundred and thirty two thousand?" "Um." "000 comments and every comment is happy birthday to you." "John has adapted to almost a century of technological breakthroughs." "The world changed." "Yeah" "Airplane finally took off" "Ten years before I was born." "Radio came in just as about eight year." "television came in after world war 2." "they decided to go to the moon." "Heh heh." "Lots happened in that.. those 96 years ." "Yeh." "John's operation happened to coincide with his birthday." "An annual tradition for the Schnabel family." "My Grandpa's never missed one of my birthdays and I'm not about to start missing his." "I guess we got a party for you." "Happy Birthday." "I can't have one unless I get there." "Well then let's get there." "it's kinda too bad we have to do this in a hospital but." "Ha ha." "Least we're doing it." "Just I'm totally honored." "(All clap and cheer) his wife Irma." "weren't going to miss what everyone knew might well be his last birthday." "happy birthday." "(Laughter)" "Nice to see you dad." "I love you." "Ha ha ha." "Ha ha ha ha." "it's great to be loved." "I got your back." "pitch the song Sandra." "♪♬ Happy Birthday to you ♪ ♪" "♪♬ Happy Birthday to you ♪ ♪" "♪♬ Happy Birthday Dear Grandpa ♪ ♪" "♪♬ Happy Birthday to you ♪ ♪ laughter)" "I love things in the air." "This is the best party." "For anybody to receive." "Material things are fine but" "Love is the most important." "And I'm surrounded by it." "inspiring me and" "I feel like now it's kind of our turn to do that for him." "He's got a cut from his hip basically all the way down to his foot." "And um" "You know that takes a lot out of somebody that's 96 so." "I think he's really rallied for this. um." "you know." "Hospitals kinda take the life out of you it seems sometimes and he's dealing with it well." "Did a fine party." "It has been a very nice one." "A very welcome addition." "The big question is are you gonna make it up to the Yukon for my birthday this summer." "That would be nice wouldn't it." "Yeah." "Well we'll see how my leg responds to that treatment and uh." "Then we'll see how my body responds to this struggle so." "Good Lord if" "Not yet." "I do." "Alright." "Thank you Parker." "Are you gonna wheel me up?" "Yeah." "Ok." "Anytime." "I'm ready to be wheeled." "You gonna wheel me Payson." "Of course." "I'll help you." "Bye bye everyone." "Good-bye everybody." "Bye dad." "but John seemed to know the end was near." "♬ ♪ Goodbye my friends." "It's hard to die." "♪When the birds are singing in the sky.♪♬" "♪ ♪And flowers are blooming everywhere♬ ♪ through the air. ♬ that I could be there.♬ ♪" "John had some final words of wisdom for his beloved grandson." "I wish you the best of everything." "I don't particularly wish you to have billions of dollars like Bill Gates or Buffett." "But I do wish you to have a wonderful feeling for someone." "Who becomes part of your life." "Good luck." "Good luck." "Thank you." "I love you." "I love you too" "(chokes up)" "Bye bye." "Bye Grandpa." "Bye bye." "You know looking back on it because of what he's provided for me and his family and." "and you look back at that and it makes you reminisce about those good times." "to the point where you gotta celebrate." "it's just been wonderful to have him." "There's still that disbelief because he's always been here." "you know..you're never ready." "I think that that's the moral of the story." "You're never ready to say goodbye." "It's never long enough." "he's the light that we have been blessed with our entire life for my family." "Had some good times with my Grandpa you know." "347)\fnLucida Calligraphy} Subs by {\fs42.153\b1\i1} Jack T" "I couldn't ask for a better mentor." "He's made a huge impact on a lot of people's lives." "mine especially." "I don't know what I'll do without him. 406)} position"