Andreas Huonker

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Andreas Huonker , called Andy , also "Gold Huonker" (* 1852 in Leidringen , Württemberg ; † January 23, 1931 Berkeley , California ) was a German emigrant and gold prospector in North America.

He was a son of the smallholder Andreas Huonker (1809-1892) and Katharina Bischoff (1810-1874). The economic situation prompted the 17-year-old to emigrate to America in 1869 . In doing so, he renounced the civil rights he was entitled to at home . He went from Hamburg to New York on the sailing steamer Germania . After twelve years as a miner and prospector in the Rocky Mountains , he came to Alaska .

On September 11, 1896, he staked his first claim on the Klondike, a tributary of the Yukon River , as the second person after George Carmack .

His partner, the Swede Charles M. Johnson, lost a coin toss with a half dollar , and "Andy" received the rights to the claim on a small tributary of the Klondike . He registered it under the name "Hunker Creek". But as early as 1897 Huonker sold the claim for a large sum. However, the significant gold discoveries did not take place until a year later and triggered the Klondike gold rush .

As a passenger on the Prince Bismarck , he and his wife traveled to Germany in 1901 . In 1902 he moved to San Francisco , where he invested much of his fortune in real estate. In the great earthquake of 1906 he had lost almost everything again.

Some places in the Yukon have been named after him: "Hunker Creek", "Hunker Valley", "Hunker Summit" and "Hunker Road".

literature

  • Paul Schmid: Rosenfeld. Contributions to the history of the city of Rosenfeld , 1926
  • Wolfram Fischer: Alt Rosenfeld. Memories in Pictures , City of Rosenfeld 1991, ISBN 978-3-927936-10-2
  • Leidringer Chronicle

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The interesting life story of the "Gold Huonker". (No longer available online.) City of Rosenfeld, archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; Retrieved October 25, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rosenfeld.de
personal data
SURNAME Huonker, Andreas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hunker, Andy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German emigrants and gold prospectors in North America
DATE OF BIRTH 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Leidringen , Oberamt Sulz , Kingdom of Württemberg
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1931
Place of death Berkeley , California