Original subtitles

So I'm gonna tell you straight up,

from the very beginning,

I have not feared that curse,

plain and simple.

I know there's a lot of gold,

and I know I can get it.

That's what I'm doing.

[Narrator] It is said

somewhere,

hidden deep within the mountains

of Pitt Lake, British Columbia

lies a source of pure gold worth billions.

It is a tale passed down through generations,

with a lure of wealth

beyond human imagination...

[Kru] This is over a 100-year-old mystery.

I heard this when I was a teenager.

It's bigger than big time, it's legendary.

[Adam] The legend describes

that there's a creek covered with gold.

There's nuggets everywhere.

We're looking for Slumach's gold mine.

[Taylor] The story is about this Slumach guy

that found gold.

[Fred] That Slumach was a murderer,

killing to protect the gold that he had found.

As he stood on the gallows,

Slumach expressed a curse.

[Kru] "When I die, the mine dies."

[Adam] A death sentence

to anyone that tries to find his gold.

[Narrator] ...but Slumach was just the start of the story...

Nice to meet you.

This has been in my family for years.

No way.

Wow!

[Don] You don't wanna fall in here.

This is straight down.

Sketchy.

[Narrator] ...the legend ignited a treacherous 100-year search

for his gold.

[Fred] The terrain is absolutely impossible.

[Adam] You're not freaking out, are ya?

It is life-threatening everywhere.

[Kru] This is terrain people don't come back from.

-[ice cracking] -It's started to break apart.

We're talking major coastal weather systems

that will kill you.

If you don't find it in three months,

you're waiting till the next year.

If the gold was easily accessible,

there would be no legends.

[Narrator] Now

a new team of gold hunters and adventurers...

-We're like right over it. -That is really, really cool.

You can see the circular design around the top.

[Narrator] ...bands together

to solve the 100-year-old mystery...

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Kru] Something happened to this guy.

[Narrator] ...to find the gold,

and test the truth behind the legend

and the curse.

[Taylor] We're not alone, I'll just say that.

[Kru] People have died, people have disappeared,

people don't come back.

This is what he was after.

[Kru] We're not going to make the same mistakes.

Watch out!

That is beautiful.

Oh yeah.

There is no better motivation than gold.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

Hi. I'm Bill Burrud,

the program is "Treasure,"

and our story is an exciting one

about John Slumach,

who's supposed to have had a gold mine

hidden away in the wild Pitt Lake mountain country

just 60 miles from Vancouver, British Columbia.

Shrouded in legend,

cursed for over 68 years

by the ghost of its owner.

Anyone who looks for the Lost Creek Mine

is walking right into a death trap.

All the way down,

I want you to go through.

Mix up your strikes.

Work on balance.

All right. [claps]

I'm Kru Williams.

I'm a Mixed Martial Arts Instructor

and prospector.

I believe in God, gold, and guns.

[exhaling sharply]

I've been in the fight game pretty much all my life.

Fighting in the streets,

to Muay Thai overseas,

to MMA over here.

[exhaling sharply]

I'm passionate about life.

In it for the fun.

I love finding gold.

'Cause when I'm out there, I'm in the zone.

There's nothing more addictive

than panning out some pay dirt,

and seeing those pretty little easter eggs

pop up out of the black sand.

Obviously if I'm on the outside looking in,

yeah, it's gold fever, okay,

but when you're on the gold,

you need to be on the gold.

[chainsaw buzzing]

In 2022,

I made the decision to prospect full-time.

With this mission to find Slumach's gold,

I'm putting it all on the line.

[Narrator] Pitt Lake, British Columbia,

home to some of the most difficult terrain in the world.

[Kru] I know fighting and prospecting.

Climbing glaciers? Not so much.

To be able to go to the routes that Slumach did,

you've gotta be proficient in everything.

At the end of the day, you need an Adam.

My name is Adam Palmer. I'm a mountaineer.

[laughs] Mountaineer...

It sounds weird to say "I'm a mountaineer."

I'm a mountaineer.

You want to check it out and see if it's okay or not?

[Adam chuckling] You're scared?

[Kru] You're pretty good at that.

Somebody who'll actually go to the places

that no one will go...

climb the things that no one will climb...

...and let you know what's on the other side

or underneath something.

So, yeah, you need an Adam.

[laughs]

-You do this for fun? -Every day.

[laughs] Every day.

Well, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

I first heard about the Lost Creek Gold Mine

when I was 12 years old.

I've been searching for 20 years.

I met Kru at the gym.

We got talking.

We realized we had a shared passion

for finding Slumach's gold.

We both grew up watching the same shows,

and reading the same books about this legend.

Welcome to "Gold Trails and Ghost Towns."

I'm Mike Roberts, and with me is Bill Barlee.

Today we've got a story

that'll just raise the hair on the back of your neck.

The treasure is sometimes called

the Lost Mine of Pitt Lake.

I'd rather call it Slumach's Lost Mine.

On the 16th of January in 1891, he is hanged.

"Nika memloose, mine memloose."

It means, "When I die, the mine dies."

Every time I'd watch that show, it put me in a good mood,

and, you know, just kind of stoke the fire

to find that gold.

I think this particular treasure still exists.

[Adam] Looking for the Lost Creek Gold Mine

isn't just about finding gold,

this is about solving a 150-year-old mystery.

The top figure has some sort of weapon.

[Narrator] Dusting off a 100-year-old mystery

takes more than muscle,

so Adam has turned to a close friend

with a unique set of skills.

[Adam] When you go through areas with rich history,

you look for people that know that history.

My name is Fulamaluk Khalatia,

but my English name, my given name,

is Taylor Starr.

Taylor is one of the strongest assets we have on this team.

[Kru] Eagle-eyed Taylor

sees things that, you know,

a seasoned hunter won't even see out there.

There's more tracks right down here.

This is definitely an adult wolf,

'cause you see how big it is compared to my hand.

[Adam] She has this intimate knowledge of the land

that will help us solve this puzzle.

[Narrator] For Taylor, the story is personal.

Taylor is the great-great-grand-niece

of Slumach.

[Taylor] My grandma is from the Katzie First Nations

where Slumach is from,

so then I started doing a little research,

and I'm like, "Well, shoot,

I'm related to this guy."

[Narrator] But growing up in Seabird Island First Nation,

Taylor knew little about her great uncle Slumach.

[Taylor] When I was growing up,

I never heard anything about Slumach.

He was essentially banished from history.

Just poof! Gone.

[Narrator] As for his fabled fortune...

[Taylor] Historically,

gold never meant anything to First Nations people,

apart from everybody trampling on our land

to go and find it.

For me,

the gold is actually completing this family tree.

We find the gold, we finish Slumach's story.

[Narrator] Now, a prospector,

a mountaineer,

and a truth-seeker

band together

to travel trails gone cold

of those who never made it back

in the search for Slumach's legendary lost gold.

We got a lot of stuff to look through, eh?

[Narrator] West of Pitt Lake,

at their new Seabird Island base...

Is this the first one?

[Narrator] ...Adam and Kru

begin their search with early reports

of gold-seekers inspired by the Slumach legend.

You start at the beginning,

and you go through all this, and you find, you know,

little bits of information here and there that just add up.

The best way to find Slumach's gold

is to follow those who followed him.

[Kru] If you want to find something,

talk to someone who's already found it.

That's Walter Jackson.

[Narrator] Slumach was hanged in 1891.

10 years later,

American Walter Jackson

made multiple trips

into the British Columbian wilderness,

where, reports claim, he found Slumach's gold.

"Every season for several years

he came out late in the fall

with 5,000 to 7,000 in gold nuggets."

Back then, thousands of dollars.

Can you imagine what that's actually worth now?

-Big find. -That's huge.

[Narrator] The story goes,

after finding Slumach's gold source,

Jackson was weighed down with too much gold to carry out,

so he buried what he couldn't transport,

not knowing it would be his last expedition.

Back home in San Francisco,

Jackson fell gravely ill.

On his deathbed, he wrote a letter to a friend

with clues to the location of his hidden treasure.

Any prospector who's out there

looking for this gold

has got a copy of that letter in their back pocket.

That's the reason they're out there

in the first place.

[Narrator] But over a century,

clues revealed in the Jackson letter

have been lost,

or purposefully omitted.

[Kru] Someone changed words in there,

someone redacted information

so that you can't find the gold.

[Narrator] ...but key details in the letter were constant.

This is the one that I grew up on, you know,

with the tent-shaped rock.

"I came to a place where the bedrock was bare,

and there, you could hardly believe me,

the bedrock was yellow with gold.

I buried part of the gold

at the foot of a large tent-shaped rock."

"The canyon is guarded by three peaks.

[Adam] The key clues

and the key indicators of this letter

are, you know, three peaks.

There's a tent-shaped rock,

there's a disappearing creek.

Oh, right there.

[Narrator] Three peaks,

a creek,

and a tent-shaped rock...

landmarks that could be anywhere.

Look at this right here.

This guy's done it 10 times.

"1947, Lost mine hunted 25 years...

Painter soon will try again."

Who's this painter?

"Cyril Walters, a sign painter."

He had a copy of the Jackson letter.

He must have known something that others didn't,

because he's very specific.

In the letter he had,

it's giving him directions exactly where to go.

So it'd have to be a different letter?

Different version.

I mean, it says here

"a copy of that letter

came into Cyril Walters' hands in 1922."

What?

Where did Cyril get that letter from?

That's the one I want.

[Adam] This is a big deal.

This could be an original copy of the Jackson letter.

[Narrator] The article reveals

that Cyril Walters didn't prospect alone.

[Adam] So four of them.

"Vancouver sign painters,

all are treasure hunters."

Key word "all."

"All are treasure hunters

inspired by Cyril Walters."

Bam!

The article claims

that this man and his friends

have an actual original copy of the Jackson letter.

Now we can get these guys,

we can find their relatives.

Like, somebody's gotta have something.

To see the real thing...

[sighs]

that would be phenomenal.

Let's go do this, man.

Whoo... hoo, hoo!

Gettin' excited, man!

[Adam] We need to find this letter.

This piece of the puzzle

could blow the whole legend wide open.

So, what's the next step?

[Narrator] In their search for Slumach's lost gold,

Adam and Kru examine clues

left by an early 1900s prospector.

If you're going to find Slumach's gold,

you start with the Jackson Letter.

[Narrator] Walter Jackson

penned a deathbed letter to a friend

detailing directions to the gold's secret location,

but like a game of broken telephone,

details in the letter changed

and disappeared over time.

99% of us have seen the fake one.

At the end of the day, to see the original?

That's what we need.

[Narrator] A new lead in a 1940s newspaper article

refers to a Vancouver man

and his friends

in possession of an early copy

of the Jackson Letter.

It's the best and clearest link to date

back to Slumach

and his legendary lost gold.

[engine rumbling]

[Adam] I did some digging, did some research.

Cyril Walters died some time ago,

and I cannot find any of his living relatives.

[Narrator] Leaving Adam with the only other name

listed in the article.

[Adam] Arthur Dick Carter.

His obituary mentions grandchildren.

I'm looking for an Ian Carter.

It's a long shot.

The problem is there's a lot of Ian Carters.

How do you know which is the right one,

except by calling every single Ian Carter

I can find.

[call ringing]

[man] Hello?

Hey, I'm looking for Ian Carter?

-I heard you-- -What?

I'm looking for Ian Carter

that's got a copy of the Jackson Letter.

I think you might have the wrong number.

Okay.

[call ringing]

[woman] Yeah?

Hey, is Ian Carter there?

I'm looking for any living relative

of Dick Carter.

Sorry, wrong number.

[man #2] I think it's wrong number.

[man #3] Wrong number, buddy, sorry.

[call ringing]

[static crackling]

[automated voice] Your call cannot be completed as dialed.

[call ringing]

Hello?

-Is this Ian? -Yeah.

This is Ian Carter?

Yeah.

Hey, Ian, it's Adam Palmer.

I'm trying to get some information

regarding your grandfather,

and supposedly he was connected to Cyril Walters.

He was in possession of a Jackson letter.

He showed us that letter

when I was like five or six.

And you have the letter?

Yeah.

This is the missing piece of the puzzle

that we're looking for.

And you would be okay to get together?

Yeah, yeah, we could set something up for sure.

I mean, it doesn't usually always work out this way.

[chuckles] Actually, it never does.

[Narrator] Back in Vancouver,

Taylor begins her search for the truth

behind her ancestor Slumach,

his life, and claims of gold.

[Taylor] It's hard to tell

what is fact and what is fiction

in the Slumach story.

I'm starting to look into

all the newspaper articles about him.

"At the Pitt River on Monday,

an old Indian named Slumach

picked up a gun and shot Louis Bee,

a half-breed,

through the chest."

[Taylor] We know Slumach was a real person.

We know in 1891

he was hung for shooting another man.

[Narrator] The legend of Slumach

tells of a brash young man from Pitt Lake

arriving in the city of New Westminster every year

loaded with gold, and flaunting his wealth.

When he kills to protect his mine,

he is hanged,

and from the gallows,

curses anyone seeking his gold.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Don] Slumach.

It'd be interesting to know actually who took that photo.

Yeah.

[Taylor] Don is my father.

In the team, he is like our elder...

-Drum roll. -Miss.

Ooh!

[Taylor] ...but he doesn't like to be referred to

as an elder. [laughs]

Do you wanna stand there

with an apple on your head for me?

No, I'll wait a bit.

We always look up to him.

We always go to him

for just that little bit of wisdom

that he can pass on.

Nice!

[Taylor reads] "Indian Killer once Terror of Pitt Lake."

[Don chuckles] Yeah.

Why do they have to say "Indian Killer?"

Could have just said "killer," right?

Yeah, gets people to read the-- like, read the article.

Like, "Ooh, what is this about?"

So it looks like the media,

they're painting Slumach like the...

this terrible villain.

Yeah.

Of course they were, at that time, so oppressed.

Their right of governance

to traditional justice was gone.

[Taylor] From my research so far,

I know some of the legend is a total invention.

Lots of truths and mistruths

and just straight-out lies in the entire story.

Everything was, like, embellished,

but we need to know this stuff.

-Yes.

[Taylor] I absolutely want the truth.

I want to find out about the man himself,

to piece together who Slumach was,

and to find the real story.

[Narrator] On the trail of the Jackson letter...

Ian?

-How are you? -Good. Adam?

-Yeah. -Nice to meet you.

-Kru. -Kru, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you also.

[Narrator] ...Adam and Kru have tracked down

the grandson of a Pitt Lake gold hunter...

Come on in.

[Narrator] ...and possibly

Walter Jackson's directions to the gold.

[Ian] I have some great stuff to show you.

Gonna have to move a little bit of things.

[Adam] He has all this stuff saved in this box,

and now we get to open it up

and actually see.

This has been in my family for years.

Grandpa's box.

[lid creaks open]

This box originally belonged to my grandparents.

[Narrator] In their search for Slumach's lost gold,

Adam and Kru have tracked down Ian Carter,

grandson of a Pitt Lake gold hunter.

[Ian] As kids,

we were never allowed to look at this stuff.

When my grandparents passed away,

my dad got this box,

and then when he passed away,

it came to me.

[lid creaks open]

We've got some original photos.

These are from the 1940s.

The minute he pulled out those photos,

I knew for real

that his grandfather was in that area.

His grandfather wasn't just claiming to go looking,

he actually was looking for Slumach's gold.

No way.

Look at what he's holding in his hand here, man.

Look at the size of those frickin' nuggets.

That is just phenomenal.

That's gold.

It's amazing.

That's like the most gold

I've ever seen pulled out of that area,

let alone pulled out of any area out here.

Deep pans of gold--

He definitely did find gold at one time.

Look at the size of the nuggets.

[Ian] Those are huge, yeah.

[Narrator] The photo evidence is compelling,

and difficult to deny.

You can see the corner edges,

it looks like it's been moulded together.

He's out in the middle of the bush.

It wasn't like he processed anything.

It doesn't get realer than that.

You didn't have Photoshop back then.

That's gold.

[Narrator] Walnut-sized nuggets

support the idea

that Cyril's party was working with detailed directions

to find the lost gold,

but what other details do these photos reveal?

[Adam] You have him on a float plane here,

so obviously he's landing somewhere

where it's float plane accessible.

So from that lake,

they crossed a glacier,

and it looks like they are stuck

at the end of a glacier here

with the ice fall,

and then it looks like they turned around.

So I think this is what you guys came for.

This is the original Jackson Letter

that my grandpa...

-Whew. -...has kept all these years.

It looks like it's about to fall apart.

Yeah, the last page is a little bit fragile.

[Adam] This is the letter

that people have been looking for,

have been talking about,

and he pulls it out of this box.

Let's see here.

Wow, you really got to piece this together.

This is the first time I've ever even seen this.

Look at this.

It's always the last page.

Last page.

[Kru] That last page of the letter

was the only piece

that was almost disintegrating.

The reason why

is it had the most important part of it.

"From the very head of Pitt Lake,

not more than 20 miles northwest

to the hidden treasure."

"More than 20 miles in the northwest direction

to the hidden treasure."

[laughs]

[Kru] To actually see this is phenomenal.

This letter is way more detailed

than the one I've grown up with.

It actually states distance and measurements

from Pitt Lake

to where you're going to locate this lost gold mine.

The letter is saying

20 miles northwest of Pitt Lake.

We have pictures of a trip that show glacier travel...

so, you know, you put those two together,

I know exactly where this is.

[Narrator] 20 miles northwest of the head of Pitt Lake

is a remote, glaciated mountain range

known as the Mamquam Icefield.

[Adam] That's where we're going to go.

You're going to be standing

right where these guys are,

and then we're going to have to go right there.

[Kru] It's like a whole 'nother world.

Ian Carter's grandfather was using this letter

on this expedition

that these photos are taken from.

He was at the head wall of the glacier,

and that's what turned him around.

Well, that's not going to turn us around.

That's going to be me and you.

-[laughs] -I'm going to be this guy here,

you're going to be that guy. -I'll be that guy.

As long as we both come back safe.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Adam] We get ourselves high up on this glacier,

we can see exactly where those three peaks line up,

but you gotta be careful going through here, though.

[Narrator] But to get there,

Kru and Adam's first expedition together

will force them across the icefield.

It's a trek that even Adam has never made,

and one that Kru has never imagined.

[Kru] I mean, I really want to slide down this hill, though.

[Adam] No.

I don't recommend any sliding on a glacier.

[Kru] It's a weird mix of bravery, guts,

and a little bit of stupidity.

We probably shouldn't be there.

Nature doesn't care.

But when there's gold up there, I don't care,

and at the end of the day,

ain't nothin' gonna stop me from gettin' that gold,

period.

Watch out for that crack.

[Adam] Kru's gold fever

could be a little bit of a concern,

because gold fever will hit you and distract you.

[Kru chortling]

All we gotta do is go through here.

Beautiful.

Perfect.

Black ice.

[Kru] Being on the glacier for the first time,

that's what separates the weak from the strong.

[Adam] Watch out for the holes.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Narrator] 75 kilometres south,

just east of Vancouver...

[Fred] Let me see what we have here. Oh, yeah.

I see you've done a little bit of research.

[Narrator] Taylor's determined to find out who Slumach was

behind the headlines,

so she's turned to Fred Braches, a local historian

and author of "Searching for Pitt Lake Gold."

These things are all transcribed, eh?

Yep.

So all these books you did yourself?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm interested about history, the true history.

One of the things you have to take care of

that you don't believe the newspapers at the time.

Journalists they didn't go there,

they didn't talk to the people. -Mm-hmm.

They heard rumours,

and that's all what there was.

Do not trust anything which is published.

There is the real Slumach,

and there is the fantasy Slumach,

and this is created by the newspapers.

Let me read you a couple of headings here.

"Louis Bee, a half breed,

is deliberately shot and killed

by an insane Indian named Slumach

at Lillooet Slough."

[Narrator] The reports say after the cold-blooded murder,

Slumach was sentenced to die,

and on January 16, 1891,

he was hanged for the killing of Louis Bee.

"Deliberate murder by an Indian at Pitt River."

Huh?

[Taylor] Back then,

First Nations people were portrayed as savages.

Indigenous people have been stereotyped

throughout history.

Slumach has been depicted

as this sort of cartoon character.

[Narrator] The Slumach legend

plays on plenty of cliches--

a bloodthirsty warrior,

magical powers,

and a curse.

When you read those newspaper articles,

you will find one thing in the early days.

There is no mention of gold at all.

Gold is born much later.

I could not find any newspaper references

mentioning his name specifically with the gold

until 1914.

[Narrator] The article

published in the Stevens Point Journal

appeared over two decades after Slumach was hanged.

Gold comes later in the story.

[Taylor] He argued with the man he shot,

but there was no mention that it was over gold.

If this legend is a lie,

and there's no actually gold out there,

like, what are we doing?

[Narrator] On the Mamquam Icefield,

high above Pitt Lake...

[Adam] You gotta be careful going through here.

[Kru] Roger dodger.

[Narrator] ...Adam and Kru are crossing the glacier

in search of landmarks from the Jackson letter,

clues that could lead to his stashed gold,

and to its source,

Slumach's mine.

[Adam] We're looking for Walter Jackson's three peaks

and his tent-shaped rock,

but this won't be easy,

and we have to cross this glacier first.

The most difficult part of the journey

is actually crossing the headwall of the glacier.

They consist of massive ice falls

that drop down a thousand metres

to the valley floor.

[Kru] Sketchy!

You can't quit.

I just kept the motivation of seeing those peaks in my mind

that, "Okay, at least we're onto something,

and we're going the right way."

[Adam] Kru's never been on a glacier before.

He's never crossed a crevasse field.

I think he's out of his element.

You're going to have to climb up that ice.

[Kru] Seriously?

[Adam] Yeah. It's our only way up.

-Coming down here? -All right.

[Kru] We're doing things I've never done before.

[Kru] Is it doable?

[Adam] Gonna find out.

[Narrator] Curse or no curse,

it's clear the Mamquam has the ability

to swallow the unprepared.

[Kru] We don't know

exactly how many people went out there

and didn't come back.

Some say 20, some say 50.

I say if one life doesn't come back, it matters,

and especially if it's mine.

You can't mess up.

This is real life.

You're going to fall, and you're going to get hurt,

and ain't nobody gonna help you.

You're out in the middle of nowhere.

Whoa...

[Adam] Kru thought he was going into a minefield,

and literally, he kind of was.

Oh...

Actually, wait a minute.

What is it?

Uh, we got a huge fracture line.

[ice crumbling]

I can literally hear this thing moving.

[Narrator] The milder spring weather

makes accessing the Mamquam possible,

but it also makes the melting and shifting glacial ice

much less stable.

[Adam] The fracture line is, like, right here.

[Kru] Let's talk about it at the bottom.

[Adam] I think we can jump over that crevasse

and just get around this minefield.

[Kru] Oh, that does not look good.

This is starting to push those limits.

[Narrator] The detour will force Adam and Kru

up a sheer wall of ice.

Oh, boy, Adam...

[Narrator] ...testing Kru's abilities

and determination.

Let me know when you're ready.

You're good.

[Kru] You can't quit.

You're already in it.

You have to push through it.

It doesn't matter if it's scary,

it doesn't matter if it's dangerous.

I'm going to jump across.

[groans]

[Adam] You got it.

[grunts]

Whoa.

[Kru] One false step, one false move,

for me, it's scary.

I don't need to die.

Whoa.

I'm at my limit right now.

Good job, you got it, Kru.

Come on.

[Kru] What am I gonna do,

stay out on the glacier all night by myself,

or get over this wall?

Nice. Good stick.

You're at the top, come on, you got it.

Stick it.

[grunts]

Well done.

[Kru groans] We did it.

[breathing hard]

Did you just pull off your first ice climb

on the glacier?

[chuckling]

-See? -First of many.

Told ya I'd get you up here.

I know. I trust you.

[breathing hard]

[Adam] I was extremely proud of Kru.

Now I'm confident that he can do it,

and he knows himself he can do it.

[Narrator] The reward,

a clear view of their target destination...

[Adam] See that?

Those three peaks right there.

[Narrator] ...the three peaks

described in Walter Jackson's letter.

If there's any sort of gold mine or mineralization,

it's going to be it right there.

How the hell are we gonna get over to those peaks?

We follow the ice.

We don't want to drop down into that valley.

That valley's a nightmare.

Let's get off this glacier.

[Narrator] The terrain ahead is solid.

[Adam] That's the way. Go straight across.

[Narrator] But they will need to find

the Jackson Letter's next clue...

-[Adam] Smooth sailing. -[Kru laughs]

[Narrator] ...a tent-shaped rock

where Jackson stashed his gold,

a landmark on the path to Slumach's motherlode.

[Kru groans wearily]

[Adam] We got it.

[Narrator] Two and a half kilometres

above sea level...

[Kru sighs]

Whoo-hoo!

Watch out, Adam!

[Kru laughing]

[Adam] You almost took me out.

[laughing]

[Narrator] ...Kru and Adam have successfully made it

off the glacier,

toward a mountain range

that matches the description in Walter Jackson's letter...

and possibly the gold.

[Adam] See, what did I tell ya?

It's worth travelling across that glacier.

[Kru] Well, as long as there's gold in here,

it's definitely worth it.

[Kru] I'm thinking, "Damn, if we made it this far,

we can make it that far,"

and very few people have done it before us,

so let's do it.

[Narrator] The unearthed letter

and the old photos

have guided them to this spot.

There you go.

There's your three peaks.

[laughing]

Oh, my god, I can't believe we're actually here.

[Adam] Yeah, three peaks.

One, two, three.

Right in the middle, boom, gold canyon.

You know what's crazy is then...

tent-shaped rock's right there.

Wow!

At the bottom of the valley,

we see a tent-shaped rock,

and three peaks lining up perfectly,

exactly as he described in the letter.

It actually lines up.

-Three peaks and the tent. -It looks good, yeah.

[Narrator] It's the scene laid out

in Jackson's deathbed letter.

Loaded down with too much gold

to pack and haul out of the mountains,

he stashed all that he couldn't carry

beneath the three peaks,

under a tent-shaped rock.

[Adam] Get out your metal detector.

[Kru] Gold fever is one thing.

Packing gold out is a whole 'nother.

If I'm Walter Jackson,

that's where you would bury the gold,

so you'd always remember it.

That's what you use as a landmark.

Either it's going to be around the perimeter,

or it's going to be down underneath some rocks.

This is what I've been waiting for.

Let's get in there.

You can get to the ground over here.

-Yeah?

Yeah, come bring it down right in here.

[detector beeping slowly]

[Narrator] The handheld detector

transmits an electromagnetic field

that identifies metals,

including gold.

[device beeps]

[Kru] I'm getting nothing but iron here.

-Let's check them all. -Oh, definitely.

We're here, let's do it.

[beeping slowly]

[Adam] Anything in there?

[Kru] Just getting iron hits, that's about it.

Check in there.

[beeps slowly]

Nah, that's too small.

I mean, if there was gold,

this thing would light up like a Christmas tree.

[Narrator] If Jackson's gold was buried here,

at some point over the last century,

someone may have already found it.

[Adam] If a letter states

that there's gold buried under a tent-shaped rock,

that would've been the first thing

people looking for this lost gold mine

would've found.

It doesn't mean that the motherlode is not there.

I don't want to waste time looking for a legend

that he supposedly left some,

when we know there's a mineral vein up there

that's looking so promising,

and if he was pulling that much gold,

he's getting it from that spot right there.

[Narrator] Even if Jackson's stash is gone,

the source of his find should still be nearby.

[Adam] Looking at these three peaks,

right in the middle of them

is this massive mineralization

that's literally crumbling away.

So why waste time looking for his

when we can go and actually look for the lode itself?

Let's go get the lode.

[Narrator] But reaching the vein

won't be easy.

[Kru] That's a huge-ass climb.

When you push through,

and you push through, and you push through,

you expect a break.

There's no breaks.

[groaning]

All right, let's go get it.

It's worth it for gold.

It's a long way up.

[Narrator] Back in Vancouver,

Taylor is in pursuit of any evidence

that supports the truth behind the Slumach legend.

Right now, I've got more questions than answers.

I want to put the newspaper articles behind me.

I need to find a voice I can trust.

[Narrator] Taylor has a lead

on someone with firsthand knowledge

of Slumach and his life.

[Taylor] In my research,

I've uncovered tapes of an interview

that was done years ago

with a woman named Amanda Charnley.

"My father, Peter Pierre,

of the Katzie Indian Reservation..."

Amanda Charnley's father, Peter Pierre,

knew the real Slumach.

I'm going to see if I can reach out

and talk to any of Amanda's current family,

but this is amazing,

a voice straight from the past.

[Narrator] 20 miles northwest

of the head of Pitt Lake...

[Kru] It's got some nice mineralization.

[Adam] Yeah.

[Kru] You can see it the further up we go.

[Narrator] Adam and Kru are following quartz and iron,

mineral indicators of gold,

upward toward Jackson's three peaks...

[Adam] Oh yeah, that's where we gotta check out.

Whew! Wow.

[Adam] Straight down there.

[Narrator] ...but the trek up

was the easy part.

I'll use my 55 metre.

That'll give us enough to get that ledge.

[Adam] If this peak has gold-bearing ore,

you need to actually get a sample of it.

[Narrator] The crumbling area over the edge

will give them the best shot at detecting gold.

To get a sample of this, you know,

you need to go on the face.

[Kru] It's, like, all bustin' away.

How are you going to get down there?

We'll rappel down.

-I'm not going to walk. - You'll rappel down.

[Kru laughs]

[Kru] I don't know what motivates this man,

but he does things

that most normal people will not do.

[Kru] You seriously think that's gonna work?

[Adam] 98% sure.

Okay, at least you're being honest.

I'll take the gun.

Here you go, captain.

Careful, that's 40K in your hand.

[Narrator] The handheld XRF spectrometer

uses x-ray technology...

[Kru] There you go.

[Narrator] ...to detect, analyze,

and I. D. minerals at a glance.

It's like having a piece of the future

in your hand.

Bombs away.

-Whoo! -Little windy out.

[Adam] See that wind take the rope?

[Kru] Yup.

Just don't let it take you, man.

All right, be safe.

[Adam] Gotta protect this gun.

[Kru] And yourself, bro.

[Narrator] It's a 200-foot drop to the ice field below,

and a bumpy ride down.

[Kru] My fear is he gets too comfortable out here.

Like, to be honest, I get it, he's done this.

It's like, "Oh, no big deal," you know,

but at the end of the day, a rock is a rock,

a fall is fall, a death is a death.

We're gonna get these samples and get home safe.

[exhales deeply]

You should see all those crystals here.

[blowing]

The geology in here is pretty neat.

It's got vugs of crystals in the side of this wall.

[Narrator] It's another good sign

of the kind of mineralization linked to gold.

I just have to go down a little further.

[Narrator] But with Adam over the edge...

What's going on with this rope?

[Narrator] ...it's on Kru to keep watch.

This is sketchy as it gets.

-Whoa! -Watch out, watch out!

-[rock tumbling] -Watch out!

-Whoa. -Watch out, watch out!

-[rock tumbling] -Watch out!

My god!

We almost just started a rock slide, bro.

You okay? -Yeah, it's good!

[chuckles] That was [bleep] close, man.

You can't even relax a second out here.

Sometimes you do it so often,

and you become complacent.

You just think "Oh, it's just another rappel."

At the end of the day,

nothing is worth your life.

I just have to go down a little further.

[Kru] Obviously he's got to be a little bit shook,

but he didn't stop, he didn't quit.

You know, he kept doing what he had to do,

and he got it done.

Yeah, I got a good spot here.

Cross your fingers, man.

Let's get some gold out of this.

Walter Jackson pulled gold outta the dirt out there.

Dick Carter came back

with a pan full of gold and nuggets.

[Narrator] The clues in Jackson's letter

appear to line up.

Three peaks,

and a tent-shaped rock.

Could this be the source

of Slumach's legendary lost gold?

Come on, man.

You're killing me with suspense here.

Very rarely do you get to feel the...

and the anxiety,

and anticipation for something, you know?

Is it looking good?

Iron.

Lots and lots of iron.

[exhales deeply]

Magnesium, calcium.

-No gold. -Nothing?

Nope.

[Kru] Oh, boy.

Everything but the frickin' gold.

Hurry up and get up here, man.

This is not Jackson's secret gold source.

[Kru] It sucked.

It sucked not coming out of there

with pockets full of gold,

but it doesn't mean we're done.

But at least we know now with our own eyes

that this isn't that area that we're looking for,

so just to be able to mark something off

is a big step in the right direction.

Now I'm addicted.

[laughs] Now I don't care where it's at.

[laughing]

Let's get out.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Narrator] Back at the team's Seabird Island base...

Okay.

[Narrator] ...Taylor is checking out the new find,

hoping to learn something concrete

about Slumach's life.

[Taylor] This is history

coming directly from someone that's First Nations.

I'm just like, wait,

did I just really hear that?

So there is gold?

So Amanda said

that her father heard directly from Slumach

where the gold mine is.

Slumach actually found gold.

Hearing it from Amanda Charnley,

it's validation.

This is absolutely incredible.

[Narrator] The team's first expedition

hasn't led to the motherlode...

but this voice,

connected to Slumach himself,

says the mine is real...

so if there's fact in the legend,

the team will continue the search

to find the gold,

and uncover the truth.

[Taylor] We're only just skimming the top of this thing.

There is something out there...

and we can find it.

[Narrator] Next time...

In the ring of the mountains, you're gonna get hit.

[ice crunching sharply]

The mountain's always gonna win.

If it doesn't command your respect,

something will happen to you.

I like to get gold.

I don't like to not get gold.

There's some big clues in this footage.

We're on the right path.

[Kru] Whoo! Making my heart beat a little bit faster.

The most treacherous terrain in British Columbia.

Oh boy.

-Whoa-ho! -Things got crazy.

Quartz vein in here.

Oh, my god!

This feels very real.