Original subtitles

up in the frozen north seven men from the lower 48 are into their second season

mining for gold for the hotman crew it's time to put up or shut up you guys can

get that you're mine right now they put everything on the line again to strike

it rich this is the American green this is what it is no longer rookie miners

red rock they decided to drill before digging why do you pick that area now they

have proof that they are on the gold there's gold under this ground we just

got to dig it up but the clundice won't give up for gold easily the

lily dolly danken around and we're gonna have to get our ass and gear I get it

the plans to look for a machine up down south at Porcupine Creek Dakota

Fred's wash plant self-destruct I'm sick of it and I'm kind of feeling my

rope right now and over at the big nugget mine 17-year-old Parker

Schnabel is forced to become a lumberjack to get a gold rich pager

oh that'll make us rich

at the quartz creek gold claim in the clundice the huffman crew is preparing to

run their wash plant to separate the gold from the dirt for the first time this

season

today today we should see gold in the box

yeah it's start the two can bear

start this shoot

it's taken almost half of the short 150 day gold mining season to get to this

point this may be the huffman crews last chance to hit the jackpot but a lot of

time energy and money into this one day and the fact that we're back out of

getting a field real good

the crew of stripped eight feet of clundice permafrost to get down to the gold

bearing gravel I see white quartz this should be where the gold is

they've spent the last three weeks and thousands of dollars dialing in their

wash plant if you can hit a man they come often including a week delay to build a

new water filter from scratch the thing that's sweet man looks like you can take off

the crew finally has the chance to see some gold and earn some money for the

first time in almost two and a half months we're running dirt now we've got to go

wash through this flat baby blue is operating in full steam Greg feeds the first

pay gravel into the hut from there a conveyor belt takes it to a vibrating

screen where water jets wash the gold particles off the larger rocks the gold

bearing slurry then passes down through the screen and finally onto the hydraulic

ripples here in the ripples the gold is trapped and recover

that's coming off of air real good

got a load of real slow we're taking out way too much dirt that hopped right

now it's adding a lot of weight to this end of the plant

okay what do you think well you got a hopper full of dirt right now on the

belts not take it and watch in the end of this whole end of the plant drop so I

don't know if those eye beams can hold the weight okay

after running just ten yards Todd shuts down to save the wash plant

supporting i-beam he opens up the hydraulic ripples to see if they've caught any

gold I know what they look under there what do we got water and they don't get a

stick you're not concerned about these being packed up how many yards we run

tan maybe okay the hydraulic ripples that actually catch the gold are packed

up with fine sand at the final stage of washing hundreds of tiny jets in the

hydraulic ripples agitate the dirt heavier gold eventually settles at the

bottom and the lighter sand and mud are flushed out over the top it's a

finely tuned system the water pressure and the angle of drop have to be

just right otherwise the ripples will pack up with sand and the gold will pass

over each riffle and out of the wash plant well we got some major issues to

figure out I'm a little concerned about that we were losing stuff right off

the top we're going to have to test that and find out so take a little bit off

and panning Jim Thurber pans the material from the backstop of the wash

plant what I'm doing is I'm checking the very last point of recovery where we have

a chance of collecting gold and you really don't want to see any gold in that

last riffle I'm afraid if you do it's basically dumping out of the machine

and that's not what I did not want to see it's all this gold I'm not

through cleaning out and there's we're not going to quite a few colors

after almost 10 weeks and thousands of dollars their wash plant is still not

catching the gold the often crew needs to find around 70 ounces about

a hundred and twenty thousand dollars just to break even this season with a

life and young kids back home Greg Remsberg's feeling the strain

I'm the breadwinner and our family right now and so they're depending on me

a hundred percent and it's it's tough to deal with not being able to come

through for him I need to bring home some gold this year

600 miles south at the porcupine creek claim Fred Hart is running dirt for the

first time his plan of attack volume the more he can feed into his wash

plant the more gold he'll get out feed that plant feed that plant feed that plant

just reputation reputation over and over and over and over some more nothing's

broken yet and it's not a clock in the morning that's a victory in itself

since he took over the mine from the Hoffman's equipment breakdowns have

kept Fred from getting to the goal and when a flood hit his hometown in

North Dakota he lost his house and everything he owns is bad now almost half

way through the season Fred and his son Dustin need gold more than ever it's

time for the precious porcupine dirt to start paying off his son Dustin holds

four tons of dirt in each bucket from the dig site to the d-rock

this is the bucket it's what I'm going to give my nugget from this bucket right

here the real deal now this is the way it needs to be run all day long eight

ten twelve hours a day I think we're going to be a good chase catch net gold

Fred's wash plant the d-rocker is built for maximum capacity it chose

for 150 yards of paidered per hour but it also spits out around two tons of clean

boulders each minute almost immediately the boulders start to pile up

right now we got to move that we're going to start coming into the

sluice box anytime you got to get them off the here that's more than

going to be happy okay okay if the discarded boulders fall into the sluice

boxes they'll block the gold catching ripples or worse crush them Fred's

business partner Paul Bean will have to clear two tons of tailings per minute

to keep the d-rocker clear the Paul is no expert on the gozer it's been six years

to say go but you know so I got to get comfortable with it I drove it for like two

three days but I got to go because I got rocks built up here

oh it's going into the sluice box bring them over and do it that way

just in jumps on the loader to save the sluice boxes from the rocks

but he's too late he's forced to shut down the d-rock

Paul couldn't keep up the tailings and didn't realize that it was coming

over and it just filled up our boxes they got beat up pretty bad destroyed

half this stuff too we have to rebuild them just another set back

the first day running dirt at Porcupine Creek ends in disaster the decoder boys

have to clear the sluice boxes by hand every day they don't find gold they're

out another thousand dollars in running costs something big breaks every day

I'm sick of it oh it's I want things to run just run everything just run for a

little it's driving me crazy

upper hand morale hits rock bottom in the hoppin crew melts down nobody knows

really what we're doing I don't have a plan yet because I don't know what I'm

the Dakota boys get a new toy what do you think that's a nice machine bread oh my god

and at the big nugget time 17 year old Parker Schnabel chases gold

with a chainsaw that's fun that's fun but scary

at the quartz creek claim in the clundice the Hoffman crew is almost halfway through

their second mining season and their wash plant still isn't working

their hydraulic ripples are packing with sand and gold is washing out the back of the

wash plant now having spent weeks trying to make the hydraulic ripples work mechanic james hard

this has a radical solution I don't know about you guys but I'm getting kind of tired of playing

with this thing white here here well I hate to say it but I think we're going to have to get

rid of the hydraulic ripples go back to a regular slew so they expanded metal I think we're

going to spend all of our time spending our wheels on this and never get anywhere I agree just

make it simpler and take all this complicated crap out of here and use something we know work

I'm not going to sit here burn fuel and run and not get the gold so going back to a standard

slew that's the way to go I know that's the way to go the crew rips out the troubled ripples

ready clear now 70 days into the 150 day mining season they have no way of catching gold at all

it's a huge struggle for me to not just lose it and go crazy because here we are halfway through the

season and we were mining by now last year and so now we set up and we run oh shit tear it all out

I have to have gold I don't give a f*** what anyone feels about it I'm done I'm financially ruined

haha once again the pressure is on Todd to save their maker break season he needs to find a new way to

catch the gold he and harness head back to the scrap yard outside Dawson that's some huge

Hungarian ripples right there they locate a simple but effective system two steel troughs

and basic ripples to snag the gold you know handle everything that plan will put down it so

I like it let me go talk to him though these sluices may be their only option if Todd can't

make a deal for them their dream of hitting the mother load could be dead this one and that one

I want them both well I'd have to for both of these I have to get eight for them for both of them

eight grand there's a lot of material here same

I bought four grand cash for both of them for both of them

why don't I get the feeling I'm going to leave the clondike which is my underwear no no you're

going to do better than that so what's the deal five grand cash

yep okay you're shoved deal all right I was thinking I picked those up for about a thousand bucks

each but I know that it's five grand it's cutting my end of my fuel money but if we're going to

go out we're going to go out doing it right Todd races back to Port's Creek with his purchase

to save what's left of the season they have to connect the sluices to the wash plant fast

but they'll have to do it without Dave Turin a key part of the Hoffman crew

Dave is two thousand miles south in sandy Oregon back in the off season Dave got his families

reluctant approval to go gold mining but his father Jim's not happy with Dave spending so much

time away from the family business it's an adventure and everything and sometimes it's

the most of the time it's a crap shoot and this is no longer a crap shoot I want you to know

that I understand it but I just have a concern I mean I made a commitment to Todd also

that I told him I'd help him out and honestly those guys are in worst shape than what we are

they if we don't find gold they can lose their homes they can lose well they didn't find gold last

time oh it makes you think you've got to fight at this time because we're in a new area and

I've done my research I think it's there there's definitely gold there you want to give us a little

share of that yeah yeah I hope it's a bunch okay okay we'll see okay it's a big balancing act it's

like I've got all these balls in here and I'm juggling them and I'm afraid I'm going to drop

one of them and screw some up and and I'm just going to do the best I can I'm torn

at the big nugget gold claim in southeast Alaska 17 year old Parker Shnubble digs for

Peter that he hopes will save his family business since taking over the mine from his 91 year old

grandpa John Parker has found just over 10 ounces of gold worth about 16 thousand dollars he needs

seven times that to save the claim that his family is mine for 25 years he's wasted 10 days

digging for gold in an old mine but pulled out only rusted eye getting desperate

Parker risk life limb and 10 thousand dollars to open up a new dig site up Smith Creek Hill

here come here take it easy though I'm taking it easy now veteran minor John immediately

spots a hazard that kills many gold prospectors massive conifers that overhang the new cut

got me careful to look up the tree and be positive that you know what's up there because once

that tree starts moving something will come loose and down in the coming land on your head or

shoulder and your your cripple for life or dead and in fact the name given to this type of thing

is a widow makers good thing I'm not married so is it hard to cut a tree down

well don't you just like cut a little notch and cut it I agree that I do it I don't know Parker

I mean tech is there something like I felt thousands of trees personally myself it's extremely

hazardous piece of work I started when I was 16 cutting him well I'm 17 I'm a little late

I had suggested that he hire somebody coming to it and I don't know how that's going to go over with him

that bank is pretty unstable so if something goes wrong it will probably be like a bunch of it

flying down

That's fun.

That's fun, but scary.

With the Widowmaker's cut down,

Parker next looks for signs

that he's down to an ancient gold-rich riverbed.

These rocks are the ones we want.

See, they're nice and smooth,

but those rocks are ones that have tumbled

down the river and got settled here.

And see, looking in the hole,

there's another nice big one right there.

See, and you know that's a river laid rock.

And you can be sure that this has never been touched.

100%.

The large smooth boulders indicate

that a river ran through here thousands of years ago.

Gold deposits are found in ancient riverbeds.

Parker worked hard to get at this dirt.

Now, he will finally discover

if his work will pay off.

I hope that'll make us rich.

600 miles north of the big nugget mine

at the quartz creek claim.

Dave Turin returns from his trip home with wife Shelley.

Hey, don't, man.

When Dave left a week ago,

the Hoffman crew was all set to run dirt.

He missed out on the hydraulic ripples debacle.

There's something missing here.

What are you guys doing?

What are you guys doing?

When I left, we were ready to slow.

Hot.

I know.

I mean, we were ready to run, run some dirt.

Well, we did run dirt.

How long did you make your problem?

Is this the amount of tailings that you ran?

That's it.

That's it.

Hey, trust me, man.

I don't want to make changes.

I just want to run.

But when you're panning gold on the last ripple,

you're blowing it out.

Why did we wait till now?

I mean, we're running out of time.

Look at this weather.

And now we're changing again.

I'm just disappointed.

I thought you guys would have ready for a clean out.

Here's what I'm seeing.

And I'm going to be straight up with you guys.

It's our hard in this, because with this weather closing in on us,

are we really ready to make the sacrifice to get in some gold?

I mean, my family, my business, our community,

our country is thinking behind us,

and we're dilly-dally thinking around,

and we're going to have to get our ass and gear.

This loose box doesn't be done by tomorrow night.

So I'm going to make a commitment Thursday morning.

We're running.

Okay.

Tomorrow's Wednesday.

Thursday morning, we're freaking running.

Thursday morning.

Two days ago, Dave promised his dad

he'd bring back gold to share with a family.

We're David and his wife.

Going home empty handed is not an option.

We just don't have much time left,

and I don't want to go home after what I saw Dave

going through with his brothers and his dad and the business.

I don't want to go home and say.

We just gotta get it done.

At the Courts Creek Gold claim in the Kondike,

the Hoffman crew is running out of time.

They desperately need to attach the new sluph boxes

to their wash plant to run paderd.

But the sluces won't work properly,

unless the crew sets them at just the right angle.

You get too much.

You don't get your gold.

Not enough angle.

Your riffles pack up somewhere in between.

There's a magic number.

And we were told that magic number.

We're going to stick to that magic number.

Todd wants to set the sluces at an angle of 15 degrees.

But to do that,

the Hoffman crew must raise the entire wash plant by three feet.

They have to find a way to lift 20,000 pounds of wash plant

and get it running in time to meet Todd's 48-hour deadline.

It's just, it's stressful.

But none of the crew have any idea how they're going to do it.

Greg Remsburg's at the end of his road.

It's like we have these expectations for these goals

and we're not meeting them repeatedly.

And so when we hear this kind of stuff, it's like,

well, there's the morning we're running, you know what?

There's no way.

We don't have a plan to lift the plant.

I don't have a plan, because I don't know what I'm dealing with.

We need to get it.

I get it.

The plan's to lift the f***ing machine up.

I get it.

How are we going to do it?

I don't know.

We need to have some direction,

because without it, morale is down.

Instead of just saying, hey, where's my blueprint?

I can do it.

I need you to come up positively and say, hey, Todd,

how about this?

How about this?

I can give a f***ing, I'll go find it.

I'll try to find it.

I've done that.

It's negative, dude.

My goal here, Todd, is not to be a Mr. Negativeity,

but I'm what I did.

You're negative, man, and you ruin the team atmosphere.

I don't have the ability to lay out the plan for everybody,

but that's what's going to fix this beef problem.

And I don't know if I can do that. I'm going to try.

First thing I do is got the biggest tree you can find

and cut them in two foot sections.

As many of them as you can get,

because it's probably going to take four sets.

Cut four of them for each quarter.

Then put another one.

And shove it up under there,

and then have Jack lift to do good again.

Do good again.

Do more or whatever.

And just start doing it in stages.

That could work.

We're going to do this together.

We'll get it.

Dave Turin takes the lead.

He comes up with a plan that galvanizes the crew.

We cut some logs.

There's a down tree down the road.

Cut them up into two foot sections.

Here's the frame.

I'm going to lay them like this.

Put the big boy going across.

We get a long ways to go up in the air.

We need to gain three feet.

And Dave is rigging it.

Greg's lifting.

Should work.

But placing a ten tonne steel structure

with men working directly below

is extremely dangerous.

You got guys real close to a heavy load.

And there's something breaks.

It'll drop.

You know, risk and body is risk and people.

And it takes one person to be in charge.

Right now, that's Dave.

Now, we're going through all the tables.

Easy, easy.

Come on, stop.

Wow.

Pretty heavy.

The 400 excavator doesn't have the power to lift the wash plan.

Dave and Todd come up with a high risk plan.

Let's have Dave do the loader come underneath the loader.

You think he can get a straight shot right under here today?

I could probably get the blade right there.

And then you're stable with the blade.

I'm good with that.

You want to do that?

Yeah.

Using the loader, Dave is going to lift the wash plan from beneath,

putting himself directly under ten tons of steel.

Follow him up, Dave.

Let's go.

There.

Yeah, walk his way up.

Dave, go up with him.

Hold up.

The loader has no trouble getting the wash plan up.

I can't see him.

Hang on, Jack.

Hold up, pull up.

Yeah, go ahead.

Move him more on.

Move him more on.

Okay, stay back.

Okay.

Hold up.

No.

Yeah.

After 12 back breaking hours, they get the wash plan off the ground by another three feet.

Dave's plan works.

I'm just happy with the guys.

They put out today.

I don't know what it was.

Somebody laid a fire under their butts, but I feel good about today.

It was a good day.

For our first time, a long time we're going to roll down our box.

At Parkupine Creek in Alaska,

Dakota Fred Slu's box is overwhelmed by boulders,

and he's forced to shut down.

To run dirt full time,

he needs a second loader to constantly clear discarded rocks.

Fred's broke, but he has a plan.

When he took over Parkupine Creek from the Huffman crew,

he removed their old wash plan.

Now, Fred is counting on the planned shaker and trummel, saving his season.

Somebody modified just slightly to make it more efficient in machine.

This trummel probably worth $15,000.

There's just 79 days of the 150 days season left.

Fred must sell off both and quickly.

A couple of fellows have shown up and shown a little interest in buying some work with me.

I'm kind of thinking of my rope right now.

It's been money to spend.

I hope they buy it.

You might be interested in this thing, huh?

What are you going to use it for?

Well, we need to go bigger.

I understand.

Oh, I see more yardage.

I see y'all's operation. Oh, yeah.

You think maybe that might do to job, though?

Yeah.

But what you're going to do?

Yeah.

Well, looking for a deal.

I deal.

We'd take about 30 for both of them.

Total.

Yeah.

I think that's a real fair price.

Okay.

Yeah.

I appreciate it.

Thank you, Fred.

My thanks.

All right.

Almost as soon as the old Hoffman equipment leaves Porcupine Creek.

Yeah.

Fred shows up with a new toy.

Come on.

A shiny rental loader.

What do you think?

That's a nice machine, Fred.

Oh, my God.

This is my Lamborghini right here.

This thing is awesome.

Let's get to work.

Let's go!

Ready for water.

The Dakota boys are dead set on finding more gold than the Hoffman's.

Hopefully we catch in some gold in our ripples.

And I know we catch in top-down air.

There's no stopping them now.

Keep digging.

Keep washing.

Keep working together.

The Dakota boys are going to do just fine.

Daybreak at Quartz Creek, Plondike.

The Hoffman crew's wash plan is now at the right height to attach the new slew

boxes to hit Todd's deadline.

They've got 24 hours to connect and test them.

Tired, but ready to go.

Gonna be another long day.

Need to see some gold on that slew.

Got some work to do.

But everybody's ready to do it.

We're that close.

I got to go, huh?

Todd swings the 4,000 pound boxes carefully into the

place.

He believes that if they're set in an angle of 15 degrees, the ripples will trap gold from the running dirt.

Keep it up and go forward on the roll board.

You got to get the just right.

Hang up.

Hold that corner.

You don't do I need to go a little more this way.

That is perfect there.

Plondike close.

The first time they loaded dirt into the wash plan, the crew noticed that the Hoffman was unsupported.

Free.

Dave Turin has built steel struts to provide stability.

They're just going to bury these legs.

They'll be solid.

They'll be good.

You know what?

It feels good.

We're getting her done.

We're getting going.

That's what we're here for.

The Hoffman crew is on course to run dirt and meet their deadline in 12 hours time.

They need 70 ounces to cover their running costs for the season with just over a half.

The season to do it.

This has got to work.

At the big nugget mine, 17 year old Parker Schnabel digs dirt 200 feet up Smith Creek Hill.

The gold mining season is almost halfway old and Parker's found over 10 ounces of gold worth about $16,000.

He needs seven times that amount to save his grandpas mine.

20 feet down.

His bucket scraped something hard.

Well, I was trying to see what I was hitting down here.

I don't get what this is or how it got here.

I don't know if it's a bedrock or not though.

And then it won't move.

Large deposits of gold are usually found on bedrock.

If Parker's hit bedrock, the dirt here could be full of gold.

I hope there's gold in it because if there is, I think there's a lot of this material.

I think we can keep going pretty far.

If we get anything over and out, today I'll thrilled.

Good thing I moved.

Parker is running out of time.

He's got just 78 days of the season to get gold.

Parker is so excited that he runs the first load of dirt right over to the wash plan to test it.

I think that was fine.

I don't see anything yet.

His grandpas junk prepares to pan a sample to see how much gold's in it.

Right now, the price is going to $1,600.

So we're doing everything we can that catches questions we can.

After three weeks of hardship, Parker's in for a surprise.

A few flakes has over gone.

I doubt if we made the dollar.

Well, if there's nothing in that, we might as well go home.

It's a test.

That's what it is.

Just keep working toward the better ground when eventually you'll hit it.

Yeah.

Have patience.

I thought it was going to be easy.

But I thought wrong.

Because it's going to be hard.

I'm going to have to work a lot.

But that's all right.

I mean, I don't mind.

It's just...

North at the Court's Creek Gold claim.

The Hoffman crew has pulled together to hit their 48-hour deadline.

Now, it's crunch time.

Either the new slew system works, or their dream of striking it rich, is over.

The American dream is in our hearts, but I know every single one of us is taking a lot of crap.

The only way to turn it around is for guys like us to step up, get off the couch, and go try stuff like this.

Yep.

Why don't you kind of watch the slew's with me?

Chris, loader.

Greg, load with the little guy.

Chris.

Thank you.

We're ready to go.

James, what do you think?

I'm ready.

Dave.

It's a beautiful sight.

He's ready to roll.

Yeah!

Yeah!

Well, we're looking for is just the right amount of flow.

All of these ripples that will move material, but also allow the gold to get caught in the vortex behind the ripple and drop.

We want to drop.

We want gold to drop.

Anybody can make a pretty waterfall.

Now I want to see if it can move some rock.

This is it.

There we go.

The inaugural scoop.

Make that gold take a dive.

The wash plant runs without a hitch for two straight hours.

Okay.

Got all of it.

The Hoffman crew's entire season.

And their future.

Ride on what's in their new and improved slew spots.

Woo!

Well, okay.

No, not yet.

Don't touch.

We want to let it dry out.

Now, look at this right here.

This is what's kind of interesting, guys.

Guys, get in there.

Check to sell.

Right there.

Awesome.

You can see the little pieces.

See it all along.

Yeah.

See right here.

Yep.

This whole ledge is just loaded with gold.

Right in here.

This is looking pretty packed.

It's nice.

Good sign.

Good sign.

Good sign.

With just 77 days left in the mining season.

The Hoffman crew is finally on the gold.

Their hard work in the frozen north has paid off.

The dream is still alive.

What we've shown is that a bunch of knuckleheads can get together.

Fight, argue, and put something together.

It's pretty special.

I busted my butt, worked hard, and today's the first day of pay off.

Just seen our own gold, clean.

Dude, it was beautiful.

I want gold.

I want it in my hand.

I'm Crystal Doyle executive producer Gold Rush.

This time on the Gold Rush After Show.

Did you guys buy all your equipment on the side of the road?

Yeah.

Everybody knows that.

For all of you, there's a home I wouldn't just going out.

I'm doing this.

Watch the Gold Rush After Show at discovery.com slash Gold Rush After Show.