Louis K. Schonborn
Louis Schonborn was originally from Iowa. He first came to the Yukon in 1894 and was in the Circle, Alaska mining camp. When gold was discovered in the Klondike he moved to Dawson. He wanted to build a hotel and, lacking the money, he borrowed funds from Ed O’Brien, I.J. Cole, and Hall. He peeled his own logs and with others built the Yukon Hotel on First Avenue. It was a temperance place, unusual in Dawson, and in a short time he had paid back the loans and made $10,000.1)
Schonborn was a long-time member of the Yukon Order of Pioneers before he left Dawson. For ten years he travelled in the mines of Chile and Peru, at his old home of Iowa, and elsewhere in the world. He lost his money and then made another fortune in Iowa. In 1913, he returned to Dawson, travelling in a small boat down the Yukon River. He prospected on the way and although he found no gold, he enjoyed the trip.2)
Schonborn stampeded to the Chisana, Alaska area in 1914, too late to stake a good claim, and established a second-hand business in Bonanza City at the mouth of Bonanza Creek. He soon moved his store eight miles down Chathenda Creek to the larger community of Chisana City. Schonborn was robbed and murdered in December 1914. His body was found in a vacant cabin about a quarter of a mile out of town. His was the area's only recorded murder. Schonborn had failed to lock his store and evidence pointed to a popular prospector named Jimmy Kingston who was arrested. Kingston was tried and cleared at Valdez and the murder was never solved.3)