Andrew Hunker
Andrew Hunker was born in Wittenberg, Germany. He was a veteran prospector of the Cariboo, British Columbia and the Yukon River drainage. He was known to read Gibbon nightly and carried six volumes of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall.1)
Andrew Hunker and Charles Johnson were both experienced miners, sure that the Klondike drainage held good prospects for a gold discovery. After hearing of the Bonanza strike, they staked a claim each on Bonanza Creek.2) Andrew Hunker was the original staker of Claim No. 30 Above Discovery on Bonanza Creek. C. M. Johnson was the original staker of Claim No. 43 Below Discovery on Bonanza Creek.3)
On 5 September 1896, they travelled over the ridge to what would be Hunker Creek. In six hours they were able to pan out $22.75 (at $20 oz). They spread the news of the strike and soon all of upper Hunker Creek plus the benches were staked. [They went up and told Henderson who came down and staked as well.] After serious mining, Hunker and Johnson took out $15,000 from a hole 20’ x 18’. They found the biggest nugget from the creek in 1898, worth $176.00. Hunker and Johnson flipped a coin to name the creek for registration purposes.4)
In 1906, Harry Waugh and “Black” Sullivan appeared at Hershel Island with specimens of gold-bearing quartz and went out to Dawson via the whaler Kar-Luk to record their claims. Andrew Hunker and Thomas O'Brien backed the expedition.5)