"Definitely not a good start." "There you go." "that's good." "come on." "It's been 2 weeks‚ but it still hasn't really, um, hit me." "Been psyching myself up for the day." "You know, it's a big day." "It's probably one of the biggest days of my life, so far." "My grandpa's always told the story‚ you know." "He showed up in Haines at Jones Point." "And he'll leave there at Jones Point." "So, um" "That day's come." "The search for gold has always meant everything to me." "This season's gonna be different." "I lost my grandpa, the man who taught me how to mine." "And honestly.." "I don't know what it's gonna be like without him." "This year, I'm taking the biggest gamble of my life." "I'm asking my team to walk away from the guarantee of millions of dollars in the Klondike." "In the hopes that we can do even better in Oregon." "And it's all on me." "These guys have been with me for years." "The trust they've put in me is a privilege." "And let me tell you, it's also a burden." "Any miner who tells you they know for sure what's in the ground is either a liar or a fool." "Now, it's up to me to deliver to my guys, to repay their loyalty." "And get them gold." "Roger:" "Good afternoon, everybody." "And our family, um, sincerely thanks you all for coming." "I could look at my dad and pull the good things out of him." "And pulling those good things, made me look at just the great things he brought for me." "I think my dad had a lot‚ a long list of great things." "He showed compassion, a lot more love." "He was a true Christian." "He really was." "It's a lot bigger than a funeral or or the 2 weeks that he's been dead or... or any of that." "It's a lot bigger than that." "[trumpet plays ]" "April the 2nd, 2016" "The Schnabel family gathers to bid farewell to John Schnabel, Parker's grandpa and mentor." "April the 2nd, 2016 [ gunshots ]" "John:" "I'm proud of you." "You had a dream. and you stayed with it till you won it." "What more could I ask for?" "Nothing." "I love you." "John:" "I love " " I love you, Parker." "So I don't know what that's gonna mean for the next few months, but." "It's not gonna be fun." "I'm gonna miss you, grandpa." "Thank you for everything you've done." "Nancy:" "He, he's gonna have to deal with grandpa not coming up," "Not planning to see grandpa." "That will be hard for him." "And, you know, I think he's -- this" "This event today is the preparation you need." "Tough day." "Tough day." "What's up, buddy?" "You look good." "So do you." "Thanks" "Ness:" "I " " I mean, at the end of the day, it's just not gonna be the same this year." "You know, with -- with John not being around, but" "You know, it's been a rough year for all of us, and, and" "For all of us to come here and‚ and get together and, you know," "Celebrate John's life, you know." "Hopefully it‚ it gets us closer as a crew. you know, Hopefully we can you know, put it all aside and do what we do this summer and‚ uh, and have another killer season." "Narrator: the Hoffman crew has quit the Klondike." "Last year was his most successful season ever." "But Todd has decided to start from scratch in his home state of Oregon." "Todd:" "Hey, guys, we're coming up the hill, last mile." "I love that we're in Oregon." "This is where the whole dream started for my dad and myself, and" "Hey, dad." "What do you think?" "Jack:" "You know, Todd, this is like a dream come true." "It's really gonna be a blessing for everybody." "Last year, we mined the Klondike." "We got over $3 million worth of gold." "I get it." "Todd wants to come home." "But there's no guarantees." "It's still a crap-shoot." "Narrator:" "Todd is transporting his entire operation to the High Bar Mine near Baker City, Oregon." "Gold was first discovered in the area in 1861." "And fortunes were made from the plentiful supply of massive nuggets." "But nobody's ever managed to set up a full commercial operation at the High Bar." "Over 4,000 feet up in the Blue Mountains, the claim is dry." "And no water means no wash plant." "But recently, the claim owners discovered water further down the mountain." "And are now piping it up, which means High Bar Mine is open for business." "Last year, when the Hoffman crew scouted the newly accessible claim..." "We got something to show you guys." "You.. have got to be kidding me." "Jack:" "Big gold." "Look at that one." "It's one of the best nuggets I've ever seen." "That's jewelry-grade gold." "Narrator:" "Todd is betting the farm on High Bar nuggets." "Hey, guys, this is gonna be our promise land." "I tell you what, um, it sure feels good." "You guys know that I made a deal on the, on the claim." "All this -- this whole mountaintop, okay." "But what I didn't tell you is I leased that million-dollar wash plant right there." "And if we can get that running, we can have gold one week from now." "And it's just set up?" "We're ready to roll?" "We got the claim, and we got the plant, but" "We got to get this plant running." "I want gold in the box in one week." "We need to figure out what this thing does, how many yards it runs." "Well, this plant has definitely got some different things." "I've never seen one with this many conveyors and" "It's quite the setup." "Hey, Freddy." "Monster red has twice as many runs as this." "And they're bigger runs." "Why -- why is this sluice box so small?" "We're gonna have to see what the deposit does." "But we got a nugget-trap sluice up here for this bigger gold." "Remember that gold we showed you from the test up here, Logan?" "Most of it's bigger." "This is the most important sluice box on this plant." "Todd:" "Freddy, what is that up there?" "Got a rock scrubber -- blade mill up here, Todd." "That means one thing -- clay." "Must be some gummy stuff." "That's not good." "What's clay do to gold?" "It steals it." "Clay's a gold thief." "Hey, guys, everybody come over here." "I got something to tell you." "What do you think?" "How we looking?" "I thought Monster Red was a handful last year‚ you know, a lot to watch and maintain." "This is three times the size." "Yeah, nine conveyors¸ there's a lot of things to go wrong." "Well, you know what -- there's a lot of things that can go right." "I think we're just set up the best this year." "And I feel better about this year." "Probably more than any year before." "Jack:" "You know what I like about this property, Todd, is I've seen great big nuggets that come out of here." "I don't see why we're not gonna get 'em." "We're on a mountain that's got nuggets, okay?" "We've never even seen nuggets like these." "These are -- these are awesome." "If you read some of the history on this place, they took out nuggets that were 100 ounces size,you know, they're huge." "And you know what?" "I got a good feeling about this, and I'm gonna throw out a number," "'Cause I think it's possible." "I want 5,000 ounces." "5,000?" "5,000 ounces." "We did 3,000 ounces." "I'm thinking 5,000 is within reach." "There's no overburden, guys." "Think about it." "Turin:" "And this is unproven ground." "It's unproven to us." "We climbed the mountain." "Let's climb all the way to the peak, right?" "But I want to see a miracle on this mountain." "I think there's a chance, Todd, but you're on a treasure hunt here, boy." "Here's to 5,000 ounces, guys." "Dad, say a prayer, man." "Bring it in." "Jack:" "Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity that you've given us here." "Lord, we ask that you bring those, uh, nuggets to the surface." "Help us to run them through our plant." "And we pray this in your name." "Amen." "Amen." "Turin:" "Yeah, mining in Oregon, boys." "Hi chickie.." "Hey, how's it going?" "Narrator: the Beets family has arrived in the Klondike for the start of their mining season." "Nice to see you." "Same, same." "Not too bad." "What do we have planned this summer?" "Narrator:" "Tony's first dredge is working so well, this season he's taking on a massive new challenge." "Bring a second dredge back to life." "He needs his family to keep getting gold while he works on dredge two." "Tony's kids need to step up like never before." "Do I at least get to pick my on crew?" "It's gonna be all girls then." "Yeah." "You know what?" "It'd probably be easier on the equipment." "Probably a hell of a lot easier on the eyes." "What?" "See, when they're in a good mood yeah, they are 'cause they're mellow." "But once they get in a bad mood, and that happens quite easily, holy hell are they rough." " like twice as fuckin bad." "Kevin:" "You want us to run this, let us fuckin run it." "Don't fly in all huffy and change shit." "Just let us fuckin run it." "Monica:" "Let us do it." "Take a step back." "Oh, we know." "We know." "Yeah, there was never any concern about you not letting us know." "It's gonna be a family effort." "Get on with it." "Deal with shit." "And let's just make it happen." "I mean, that's all you can do, right?" "Give it your 110%." "As a family, we can do it." "So let's do it." "And with that said, go to work." "Get out." "Get going." "Alright." "Hi-ho, hi-ho." "I have faith in those kids." "So." "Not that, oh yeah." "Narrator:" "Tony's got his work cut out if he's going to get the second dredge catching gold this season." "But even getting to it is a challenge." "Parker." "How you doing son?" "A hug then." "I lost a dad and he lost a grandpa." "All at the same time." "It's a good life we've had." "And all the years we've had him." "I know." "You know." "Yeah." "Death finally hits you." "It's sort of a new thing for him." "Not too used to this, but." "We both knew, Parker, it was gonna have to come down sometime." "That's life, you know." "And I just hope that you're okay with it." "Hopefully he'll be strong, and we'll all be strong together in a family." "I'm alright." "I'll check in with you tomorrow." "We'll see." "Okay fella." "I'm glad you are." "Narrator: the day after his grandpa's funeral, Parker takes the opportunity to update Chris and Rick on his plans for the coming season." "Here we are." "What's up, buddy?" "Good, How are you?" "I'm good man." "Good to see ya." "How you doing, buddy?" "Good." "Narrator: and there's someone they need to meet." "It appears you had a pretty nice winter." "(Rick chuckles)" "Yeah, it was all right." "[laughter] ¸" "I don't know " " I don't know what the terms are." "An item, is that what they -- are you guys an item now?" "From Australia. -- you came from Australia to Haines?" "Yes, well, so we met in Australia, and I think we just instantly had this connection." "And we got along really, really well." "And we spent some time together back in Australia." "And then he left and came home." "He asked me to come over." "Parker:" "Yeah" "I didn't " " I didn't want to stop." "So I just really wanted to be here to support you." "And be here for you and your family." "Yeah, now I'm glad you made it." "We'll be in Dawson on Monday." "And..we're gonna have a pretty slow start." "So we'll just get a couple of the dozers fired up and get some mud cleared off and, and." "And just get things opened up and get camp opened up and." "I been designing a new wash plant." "Yeah, I've been busy." "Is it a screen or a trommel you're getting?" "Uh, it's a screen deck." "Narrator:" "Over the winter, Parker has been hard at work designing what he believes is the ultimate wash plant." "Parker:" "So I " " I'm having them put..." "Narrator:" "Although it's smaller than Monster Red," "Parker and the design team have been working hard to make it leaner and more efficient, so it will need less manpower." "Parker:" "You can just unhook it from the tray, hook it up to the hydraulic riffles and hit the winch, and it'll lift that hydraulic riffle up out of the way." "Falling asleep yet." "Really?" "Ha ha ha." "Parker: thanks for coming, guys." "My pleasure." "I appreciate it." "Parker:" "Like, Ashley and I met traveling this winter." "And it's really good to have, um, Ashley and Rick and Chris here, you know." "It was great." "It was great." "They're uh, three of my favorite people in the world." "Narrator:" "It's 150 tons heavier than his first dredge." "But Tony plans to tear this monster apart." "Barge it nearly 100 miles down the Yukon river, then transport it 50 miles by road." "To have the two dredging side-by-side at Eureka Creek." "His aggressive goal:" "Have it up and running by the end of the season." "Kevin:" "Watch out!" "Narrator:" "But back at Eureka Creek, Tony's son Kevin and dredge number one are deep in trouble." "Narrator:" "Two days after Tony Beets put his son Kevin in charge of the dredge, disaster strikes." "Two hours south, Tony's dredge is sinking." "Watch out!" "Narrator:" "Kevin and his crew are desperately trying to save it before Tony finds out." "Narrator:" "The dredge floats on empty tanks called pontoons." "A leak has filled half of them with water." "And one side of the dredge now sits on the bottom of the pond, threatening permanent damages to the dredge's generator and electrics." "Narrator:" "Water is pouring into the pontoons faster than the crew can pump it out." "Oh, fuckin shit." "The dredge is about to be totally submerged." "If it sinks, the damage will be so catastrophic it could cost Tony millions of dollars." "This has been an ongoing battle here for the last 20 hours or so." "Kevin went through a 12 hour shift last night fighting with it." "We came on today and it still wasn't floating so." "I'm gonna start pumping that pond out." "My plan is to drain the pond as much as we can." "Narrator:" "Kevin's only hope, open the water outlet to drain the pond before the dredge sinks." "But it's not working." "I don't fuckin get it." "The pond should be going down." "Narrator:" "Monica arrives with more bad news." "Kevin!" "Hi." "You look angry." "Tony's supposed to be coming out in the next little bit." "Fuck." "I opened up the outlet culvert and, fuck, it's not going down." "It's almost getting fuckin deeper." "You've got to be kidding." "Narrator: if the inlet pipe is open, there's no way the pond will drain." "Because I had no conception that that was the thing." "Could be, you gonna close that?" "This had better work." "For fuck's sake, Kevin.." "Narrator:" "To lower the water level, Kevin has already opened the drainage culvert." "What he didn't know is that an inlet pipe is still open, that's continually filling up the pond." "That's how the water was coming in." "There it was, wide open." "So...that's so awesome." "Now they should be able to drop the water enough to get.." "All the water out of the pontoons." "Somebody's got to save the day and that was me today." "Narrator:" "Within an hour, Monica's fix starts to work." "The water is low enough for the pumps to empty the pontoons and re-float the dredge." "We're just finishing up." "We can actually see the edge of the pontoons now." "Narrator:" "The dredge is safely out of the water." "Uh." "Narrator:" "And Kevin can finally go home and get some rest." "It should be good to go at this point, I mean" "I'd just be sitting around waiting anyway, so, I might as well take a nap." "That's a lot of hours." "Fun." "Oh, (yawns)" "That was a couple of, hard challenges." "Which one?" "Kevin's sleeping." "He was here till 11." "Well, we knew it was coming in from somewhere." "Narrator:" "If the generator got wet, starting it up could create some fireworks." "I honestly don't know what's going to happen when I turn this thing on." "So maybe don't be standing in here in case I do blow some boxes off the wall." "(engine cranks, no start)" "(engine fires up)" "Sure is good to have it up and running." "Actually I didn't think it was going to fire up." "Narrator:" "On Kevin's first week as dredge master, his failure to check the pontoons has cost Tony 20 hours of running, over $20,000 worth of lost gold." "Narrator:" "At the High Bar Mine, eastern Oregon, the Hoffman crew is ready to run nugget rich pay dirt on their new claim." "It's looking good." "Everything feels right." "We're early in the season and we're going to get a jump on Parker, and we're gonna get a jump on the Klondike." "This plant's got a million different parts." "Hopefully we can fire it up and start firing up each piece of this plant." "You got your radio, Dave?" "Yeah, I'm ready here." "Okay, Dave's in place, and uh, we're ready to go, if you want to try this, this far conveyor." "Here we go, it's time to go." "Hey, Todd." "Yeah." "We got locks on here, I can't fire it up." "What do you mean?" "William and Jerrod's Wirth's, their locks are still on here." "Why the hell is there a lock on there." "The Hoffman crew is ready to start the season, but the claim owners have locked them out of the wash plant." "Hey Todd." "William, Jerrod." "So we're locked out." "What's the scoop?" "You know, William and I are representing the Wirth family in the High Bar Mine, and this was a humongous investment." "And because of that, we have to work with you guys side by side to protect that." "Are you guys just gonna watch us, or you gonna work with us." "We'd like to work with you." "Uh, my brother and I have been running this place since 2014." "One of the things we bring to the table is the knowledge of the place." "We don't bring in employees just willy nilly." "Okay." "We're basically a family and we take it really damn serious." "You know what we believe in, okay." "You see, you see our flags." "You know about our faith." "If you believe in those same things I'm open to it." "If you can live by our rules, you know, we could sure use your help." "Yeah, you bet." "You know, we'll start pulling paves, start running stuff." "And we'll prove ourselves to you, that we're ready to go." "You got your keys to those locks?" "We do." "Yup." "Unlock that." "And welcome to 316 mining." "Alrighty." "Let's start to work with you guys." "Let's go." "Let's get started." "Over 4000 feet up in the Blue Mountains, the geology of High Bar is different to anything the Hoffmans have mined before." "The gold was formed in quartz veins." "Rivers eroded the ground, exposing and breaking off chunks of gold." "And carrying them downstream to where the ground flattened out." "Because the river soon slowed, the gold settled quickly, leaving large nuggets that have never been worn down by further movement or friction." "It's these nuggets that have persuaded Todd to abandon the steady pay in the Klondike, and risk everything for a mountain of gold." "Let's jump down in there and I'll kinda show you guys what, what we're dealing with." "Let's do it." "You got good stuff right here, the blonde." "Nothing in this stuff in our experience." "And what's that down below?" "Down below it's really impressive looking." "It's alluring but there's nothing in it." "See normally in the Klondike, Andy, this, that would have been awesome." "If we saw big rock like that in the Klondike, we'd be elated and we'd be getting good gold." "This is gonna be a total different learning curve here." "Let's get Logan down here and let's uh, let's take our first load of pay." "Give me some." "Good." "You want to know how I feel." "I feel unbelievable." "Let me tell you something." "This is the very first load of pay from Oregon." "Generator coming on," "Everybody clear." "Freddy." "Going hot." "Cross conveyor going hot." "Looks good." "Hey Dave." "You want to try the sandscrew?" "Yeah." "Sandscrew next." "Fire it up." "Yeah." "Screen going hot." "Come on, baby, come on, baby." "Come on, baby, yeah!" "Whooo!" "Yeah!" "We got a screen." "William." "Both valves are open." "We're ready for water when you are." "We got water, Todd." "Kevin, drop the first bucket." "Let's do this." "10-4." "There we go!" "I think we're ready to kick some ass." "So this is our place." "This is all your place?" "So this is all what you did last season?" "Yeah, and all that up there." "Wow." "That's impressive." "Yeah, it's good to be back." "Narrator:" "Parker is returning to Scribner Creek with his new girlfriend, Ashley Yule." "Look at this rowdy bunch." "Hey." "How you been, buddy?" "How you doing man?" "Good, how are you?" "How's she going?" "This is Ashley." "Hey Ashley." "How are you?" "You met Tyson." "Nice to meet you." "Hey, how are you." "You find your gear?" "Richard?" "Ashley?" "It's nice to meet you." "So, Parker, who's this?" "She's my sister.." "[ laughter ]" "Oh, we met in Australia." "Oh, fancy." "Nice." "Narrator:" "This year to keep his costs to a minimum, Parker has cut his crew in half." "Yeah, this season, this is it." "Right here." "There's...nine of us?" "I mean, you know." "Guys can have as big a crew as they want, and find as much gold as they want, That's not how much they take home." "Alright." "We've got a handful of guys here." "Lean and mean." "What we're gonna to do will be impressive for the group of people we have." "So." "What's the game plan?" "So this season, basically the goal is the same as it was last year." "3,000 ounces." "(ominous music)" "That's the goal for this season?" "Yeah." "I was honestly coming back thinking we're shooting for 5,000 at least." "Yeah." "Yeah." "I didn't drive 2500 miles to get 3,000 ounces." "I came up here to make some money." "I, I always wanted to go for more too." "I do." "But the royalties." "Like, I started doing the math on the last couple hundred ounces we did." "At that point we're paying 25% royalty." "Claim owner Tony Beets has Parker locked into a tough royalty deal." "If he mines over 3000 ounces, Tony's cut increases to 25%." "So this season, I don't see us going for more than that." "More than 3000?" "No." "But..honestly it'll be more of a fuckin fight this season doing 3000 ounces than it was last season because we got half the crew." "And I didn't think that I'd get this kickback from you guys." "I certainly get where you're coming from." "Economically it's a smart move." "But, just not what I expected to hear." "All we've ever done is go bigger." "Well we proved ourselves last season." "The last thing I want is an issue with you guys." "But, I can't say that we're gonna try to do 5000 ounces because at 5000 ounces we're giving Tony Beets like 1.5 million dollars." "And I cannot afford to do that." "Narrator:" "Parker's mining plan this season:" "Expand the creek diversion cut another 450 feet." "While also extending last season's gold rich boundary cut." "Eventually these will meet, creating one giant cut covering 70 acres." "The equivalent of around 50 football fields." "But he's determined to keep his costs to a minimum and pay Tony as little royalty as possible." "Oh, I think the guys are pretty surprised by the target this year, you know. 3000 ounces is less, is less than what we did last year, you know." "All we've ever done is" "Get better, get bigger." "And it's a, to have Parker throw out a pretty uninspiring goal for the season is.." "Pretty surprising." "I think a lot of people are wondering how.." "Our mine, and our methods, and me will be affected by my grandpa dying." "You know, he died at 96 with a great head on his shoulders." "I'm trying not to be too sad about it, you know." "I'm sure more years would have been good, but.." "(dozer starts to slide)" "What the fuck?" "Shit." "Well now." "Rick, you got a copy." "Narrator:" "Within hours of starting to mine, Parker Schnabel has his 85 ton dozer stranded at a 40 degree angle." "Yes sir." "Go for Rick." "Yeah, I'm stuck pretty bad." "I'll need, I'll need you to come up here and bring the 460." "All right, I'll head back." "Oh, boy." "There's a whole lot of weight teetering there." "You think I'm pulling that out with this?" "I was thinking we just dig this out right here." "Once you get this dug out, I should be able to back down." "Alright." "If I tried to get it out, I would have tipped it over." "Alright." "There's no hope of getting out forward." "So Rick's just gonna... dig out.." "underneath this track on the high side and" "Try to get us a spot where it'll level out and I can back up out of there." "Yeah, I'm trying to get all the dirt out from underneath it that I can, so he's got a straight shot back." "This is gonna work or not, but we're gonna get it in the best possible position." "Good job, Rick, that looks good." "That's about the best I can do." "You want to give 'er hell?" "Seat belt?" "Oh yeah." "Perfect." "Come on, come on." "Come down, come down." "Fuck." "Hooo!" "Ho ho ho ho ho." "Thanks!" "Ha ha ha.." "You're welcome, man." "You should have seen it from back here." "You were so high up, that track must have been eight feet in the air." "Ha ha ha." "Fuckin close." "Wooo." "Hoo. hoo hoo." "Narrator:" "Parker can return to opening new ground while Rick digs a test hole in the old boundary cut." "Bingo." "There it is." "That's it right there." "What do you got." "So I dug a hole right on the edge here." "Yeah?" "There's some big pieces in there." "Oh, yeah." "We couldn't ask for a better situation, you know." "Thawed." "Really good pay." "If we're only going for 3,000 ounces, fuck, we'll be here a month and be gone." "Perfect scenario man to just go for it." "Go big, right." "I know Parker's got a lot of things on his mind, all this stuff happened over the winter, but." "I think his grandpa would say, uh, go for it." "If there's that much gold in that pan, think about what's in that cut out there.." "3,000 ounces, that's like a warm up lap." "We're all ready to go get it." "This is the season we go big and set some records." "We just gotta convince Parker." "Things are going good." "Truck's running, equipment's running, dirt's coming out of the ground, so." "Hopefully there's gold in it." "Narrator:" "Less than a week after arriving, the Hoffman crew Is already running pay dirt." "Todd is gambling everything on the search for the legendary High Bar nuggets." "You can't succeed if you're afraid of failure." "You have to risk to have a big reward." "Sometimes you got to shoot for the moon." "Narrator:" "To help him achieve his massive 5,000 ounce goal, Todd has leased this million dollar wash plant." "Specifically designed to cope with the difficult mining conditions at High Bar." "The ground contains heavy clay, so the pay dirt passes first through a blade mill." "Paddles on a shaft agitate the material to help the water wash the clay off the rocks." "The gold-rich gravel can then pass into a sluice box which traps the nuggets." "The remaining material goes on through a shaker deck and into the lower sluices that catch all the remaining fine gold." "What do you think overall?" "So far it looks like it's running good." "Tell you what, let's do a shut down." "You want the by pass valves open?" "Narrator:" "Todd has put his reputation on the line." "At the end of their first full day's work, he stops to see if they're on track for 5,000 ounces." "There's nothing up here." "What do you think?" "I mean there's definitely gold in there." "Everything up here is going to have gold in it no matter what you run, good, bad or indifferent." "On a good day, though, top to bottom, it'll be nothing but yellow," "I see some down here." "Yeah, there's gold in there and it's, it's sunk down in there." "But I don't see a whole lot of it." "Maybe it'll add up." "Guys, pull the mat." "Let's see what we got." "Into a tub, and we wash the whole thing out." "Narrator:" "The mats go down to the gold shack for the first cleanup of the season." "Time to fire it up, Jack." "Here we go." "You know, it's uh, high hopes and it's called the High Bar." "So, uh" "Todd lifted the bar pretty high." "Let's see if we can reach it." "Narrator:" "Last year " "That's the biggest nugget I think I've ever seen." "Narrator:" "Last year " "That's the biggest nugget I think I've ever seen." "Narrator:" "The Hoffmans ran a 100-yard test at High Bar." "Holy mackerel." "Narrator:" "The Hoffmans ran a 100-yard test at High Bar." "Narrator:" "The Hoffmans ran a 100-yard test at High Bar." "Listen." "Narrator:" "The Hoffmans ran a 100-yard test at High Bar." "Ha ha." "I love the sound of that." "That is awesome." "Narrator:" "The Hoffmans ran a 100-yard test at High Bar." "Ha ha." "I love the sound of that." "That is awesome." "Narrator:" "With impressive results." "1.7 ounces." "Per 100 yards." "Yeah." "Oh man." "That is great, look at this." "That's pretty damned good, Todd." "Narrator:" "Now they're cleaning up 2,000 yards of dirt." "The total should be around 35 ounces." "Nicole is back here." "She's picking up the big nuggets." "They're corn flakes sized nuggets." "They move real easy, cause they're so big," "But not that much weight to them so." "We want to catch all of it," "And uh, she's grabbing it before it takes off." "All right, let's see it." "I want to see the first nugget." "You ready?" "Shake." "3.55 ounces." "That's it." "That's it." "Where's the rest of it?" "I wish there was more." "Well, listen, it's our first cleanup, nobody panic." "It's not what I was expecting, Todd." "That's uh, that's not good." "We know that." "You know, we got 1.7 ounces on our test last year." "Got to be gold there somewhere." "3.55 ounces is frickin' horrible." "That should have been full of nuggets." "Should have been 30 to 40 ounces, so." "I don't know what's going on." "This might be a harder treasure hunt than we thought." "Ran out of crews in the boundary cut." "You know, we had really good gold in there last year." "Narrator:" "At Scribner Creek, Parker starts his second week of mining." "At the same time we want to get this creek cut sorted out because it's got good gold in it too." "Got the pond drained out." "Got a good thaw going." "And it's a nice, warm early spring." "Oh." "Looks like Tony's here." "Looks like we're heading for our first battle with Tony, uh." "I don't know." "I hope he's reasonable, but we've seen him both ways, right." "He can be.." "very accommodating or... completely unrealistic." "Mister Beets." "Good." "How are you?" "Good to see ya." "Thanks." "What more can you ask for." "He had a lot of good years." "And I got to see him in, at his birthday there a month before he died and it was a ton of fun." "We had a great time." "Yeah, trying to." "This cut's thawing out nicely so, get 'er." "Get 'er thawing and get things opened up here and." "Ah, right now we're just shooting for 3000." "Just cause of the royalty rates and just the fighting for it and not really making any off of it." "Narrator:" "Tony's royalty increases to 25% as soon as Parker hits 3,000 ounces." "And with his massive overheads, there's little left for profit." "You work six hours a day for Tony Beets at that point." "We've had this conversation a lot of times before and I'd love to do more ounces, I'd love to push harder but with the royalties the way they are." "I can't." "Lower your royalty rates a little you could probably get a little more money in." "There's mountains of ground to be mined here, so." "Something's gonna have to happen." "Well, we've got our problems." "I don't like having clipped wings but." "The more we make the more we work for Tony Beets." "Just ain't cool." "I want to be working for Parker Fuckin Schnabel." "And off we go." "Narrator:" "Down at Eureka Creek, Kevin is back on the dredge, determined to redeem himself." "If I'm gonna step up, let's make this fucker work." "My girls are gonna kick ass this summer." "Narrator:" "Monica has brought in her all girl rock truck crew to help strip the overburden ahead of the bucket line." "All of us here, We all grew up in the Yukon." "We're all around the same age." "These girls are doing really good." "I'm really happy." "And I think we can really show everybody that.." "Us women can do the job just as well as any man can." "What the fuck." "Narrator:" "Up on the dredge, Kevin has struck a problem." "Can you see what's in those buckets?" "Because I can't see it." "Narrator:" "The bucket line is bouncing and the buckets are coming up empty." "I don't like this." "This really isn't good." "What the fuck." "Shut her off." "Off!" "Fuckin bullshit." "Narrator:" "The dredge usually mines fractured bedrock, but it's hit a solid ridge of unfractured material that the bucket line can't break through." "Preventing it from reaching the gold rich paydirt beyond." "Kevin takes a chance." "He'll try and smash his way through the obstruction." "Got to be kidding me." "I'll better radio Monica." "Yeah." "Okay." "The dredge is having a hard time chewing through it." "It's all solid, so." "Monica's going to take the Volvo hoe and dig out a chunk of bedrock we got there." "She's gonna hopefully pull that out for me." "Right now Monica's just scraping where we been dredging." "Trying to break up all that bedrock fuckin hidden there." "At least make into manageable chunks." "Hopefully I can rip it up." "Make it more of a smooth ride for the boys." "Holy." "No way." "What do you think?" "Um." "I can't really work through it." "It's fuckin bedrock." "Pretty much." "You're not going to try and chew through it any more." "Not fuckin easy so." "Narrator:" "Kevin's new plan:" "Flood the pond." "The higher water level should allow the dredge to float right over the obstruction." "Inlet valve." "In comes the water, that'll raise the dredge up and we can get over that bedrock." "Narrator:" "But as the water level rises, it causes a serious problem for Monica's crew." "You." "Get the fuck out of here." "Get." "Go, go, go, go." "I'm not happy about the water, because the water needs to be like, 4 feet lower than it is." "The trucks are getting stuck in it." "And that makes the whole stripping situation a shitty job." "Narrator:" "At Eureka Creek, Kevin is flooding the pond to float the dredge over a bedrock obstruction." "You!" "Out of the fuckin way!" "Arrgh." "Fuck, go." "Go for a loop." "Go." "Tell her to fuckin go." "The ground is too soft." "Fuck." "All the water is kind of seeping down like if we dug down three more feet, it would all just flood out so it's just too soft for the trucks." "Narrator:" "Mechanic Mike Beaudry brings in the 360 excavator to rescue the rock truck." "It's like jello in there." "Narrator:" "The fully loaded rock truck weighs 75 tons." "There you go, back in action." "Narrator:" "The water level in the pond is finally high enough for the dredge to get over the bedrock ridge." "There we go." "We're back in business." "That should be good." "Alright." "What?" "Well, if we don't have this much water, we're digging out six plus feet of bedrock." "Okay." "Uh no." "But we'll do it anyways." "Tony's reacting like he usually is." "And now he's going to go out in a big old huff and have a big old union meeting." "Blah blah blah blah blah." "And then we're gonna keep on doing what we're doing." "Because he doesn't have a clue." "Not a great start for him letting us run around with the fuckin thing, is it?" "Narrator:" "At the High Bar Mine, the Hoffman crew is working at full throttle." "Washing rocks, that means we're getting gold." "Narrator:" "And despite a poor cleanup on their first day of mining, hopes are high for the new ground." "Up in the Klondike, you start stripping ground in April." "You've got to go down 20 feet of mud, of frozen mud, and then in about June, you start running pay dirt." "One really awesome part about mining at the High Bar here in Oregon is that..." "This gold is very coarse." "With McKinnon Creek it was just powder." "We were chasing dust." "Here we're actually on a treasure hunt." "Narrator:" "The crew has run for two days since the disappointing gold weigh." "Shut it down." "And they're anxious to spot check the sluices for signs of nuggets and fine gold." "I'm not seeing much for gold down here, which is telling me..." "There's not much gold in the material we're running right now." "I'd sure like to see some gold." "Not rocks." "This is crap." "Something's gotta change." "I should go and speak to the Wirth's." "Thing's gotta improve." "We got to start finding gold." "We got to keep the morale up." "But right now things aren't looking real good." "Definitely not a good start." "I'll tell you what, right now, I'm not gonna get 500 ounces," "Let alone 5,000." "Then the joke's on Todd." "Yeah, we're not doing good." "Yeah, we know." "And now I'm starting to wonder if I made a big huge mistake." "My advice would be stay in this cut, you know, don't panic." "Stay up here." "The problem with High Bar is that you have deposits all over the place." "So yeah." "You're gonna have your crappy days." "You're going to have days where you look in the nugget trap and there's nothing," "Or you're gonna have really hot days where you look in the nugget trap and you're gonna pull 80 ounces." "I wouldn't panic." "I would just try and hold out for at least a few more days." "Right here in this cut." "See how it goes." "Narrator:" "The patchy deposits of gold nuggets result from a unique combination of events." "Millions of years ago a series of small streams carried gold rich gravel down the mountain side." "Tectonic uplift started pushing the area up until it cut off the water supply, and with it the gold." "Leaving only isolated pockets of nuggets." "Out of this cut that we're standing in right here, this is some of the stuff that we've pulled." "God, it's so pretty." "It's chunky." "Yeah, you hit these really rich deposits every now and then, but you're going to hit quite a few of them." "I don't want to lose heart, but I tell you what." "You know, we're not used to not seeing something in the box, you know?" "You got it?" "I got it." "I say we've only given this cut three days." "I say we keep on pushing for at least a week." "And after a week we'll analyze it and then decide whether we should move or not." "What I don't want is my guys to lose heart." "I can handle just about anything." "But when I look in my guys' eyes and they stop believing that's when we got troubles." "They're not there yet but." "But I want to make sure that we can..." "We gotta hit gold pretty quick, you know." "We're gonna hit big gold." "So I think you just keep hope." "We'll keep pushing along, and uh." "You know we're gonna have a day where everything's gonna change." "Let's get on our knees and say a little prayer too, you know what I mean.?" "Yeah, you bet." "A lot of it's faith." "Narrator:" "Six months after Parker first commissioned his brand-new wash plant, finally it arrives at the claim." "Built to his own spec and costing $600,000, Parker's gambling his whole season on an untested design." "There she is." "Oh ho, yeah." "Doesn't that just look sexy?" "Fuck, yeah." "She's beautiful." "I love the color scheme." "It looks bad ass." "Man, I like it." "Yeah, it's sweet." "Ha ha." "It's bitchin'." "It's nice and compact." "Yeah." "I like that it's nice and new." "That's the best part." "It's like our first new car." "Yeah." "It's gonna be a shame to run dirt through it." "I think we might just set it up and just keep it." "Look at it every day." "Party next to it." "Yeah, ha ha." "We'll just party next to it." "Yeah, I mean this is a big day for us." "This is probably the biggest day that we've ever had in the Yukon," "You know." "First brand-new plant we've had." "We've never had anything like this." "All we've had is a bunch of hand me downs and uh." "This is our chance right here of having the best season yet." "Yeah." "I kind of wish my grandpa was here to see this, you know." "It's a pretty impressive big plant." "Yeah we've been waiting for something like this for a few years now." "A lot of the money that we've made has gone into this plant, almost all of it." "And uh, now it's time for it to make it back." "It's gonna find us a lot of fuckin gold." "Narrator:" "Now the crew has to unload the 90,000-pound wash plant." "Easy Tyson, slow up a little bit." "Yeah, that's good." "And haul it into position, close to the new pay piles." "For some reason, I'm incredibly nervous today." "Yeah?" "Just super uneasy." "Well, I guess this is it, huh?" "Ohh." "Think that thing's gonna pull that thing?" "One machine all the way." "This 700." "It's a lot of faith, Rick." "Yup." "Narrator:" "Rick has to drag the 70-foot wash plant along a narrow path on to the elevated pad, which has a sheer drop on either side." "Then, rotate the massive machine 90 degrees, leaving the sluices hanging over a 40-foot drop." "Let's do it." "Don't drop it!" "No, problem!" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha" "Wheelie time." "Wooo!" "Rick." "That is not okay!" "That conveyor's moving like five feet back and forth." "Narrator:" "The most vulnerable part of the wash plant is the 53-foot tailings conveyor that sticks out unprotected at the back." "Easy Rick." "Rick!" "Holy fuck." "What?" "It's waving all over the place." "Oh, gotcha, sorry." "Rick's a little aggressive there, you know." "And this is our first time moving the thing, you'd think he would take it a little easy." "When you start trying to rush stuff like that, that's when you make mistakes." "Narrator:" "Next, the most difficult part." "Spin the plant 90 degrees so the sluice's and tailings conveyor hang over the void." "You ready?" "If Rick gets this wrong, Parker's $600,000 wash plant could be destroyed." "Easy, easy, easy, easy." "Hold." "That's probably pretty close, Maybe start swinging it back this way." "Whoa." "Rick." "What's going on now?" "It's slopping pretty good." "This is so screwed." "Narrator:" "The ground is slipping out from under it." "Rick is forced to stop." "Well, that's just a fuckin sheer drop right there." "I was thinking that I could just drag it with the hoe." "Narrator:" "Parker comes up with a solution." "We're just going to try to move this thing straight forward about six feet." "Narrator:" "He positions himself right in the firing line beneath the plant to inch it into place." "You should have a lot of leverage sitting like that." "You should be able to pull it forward no problem." "You think so?" "Let's give it a try." "I don't want to stand by that fuckin chain." "Yup yup." "She's a moving." "Oh fuck." "Yeah, I thought that chain was gonna go." "(Snap, twang)" "There it goes." "(Snap, twang)" "Fuck, so close." "2-3 feet." "We need one more fuckin shackle." "Why do we have three shackles on this whole fuckin site." "Narrator:" "Rick replaces the shackle." "And it's round two." "How far off are we?" "One more little bit." "Go another six inches?" "Yeah." "Narrator:" "After six hours, Parker's wash plant is finally in position." "It is show time." "Hopefully this thing runs as good as it looks." "Here's the moment of truth." "Fire it up." "Yo." "Oh, that's nice and smooth man." "You guys ready for some dirt?" "Yup." "Line her up with some dirt Tyson." "Yes, sir." "We got the first dirt of the season heading into our brand-new wash plant." "Wooo." "Ha ha ha ha ha." "Taking the first ride." "Here looks good." "Good job, man!" "Hey!" "Our season starts now!" "Yo!" "Time to make some money." "You got to be kidding me." "Narrator:" "At Scribner Creek, Parker's shorthanded crew is struggling to keep up the pace." "Mechanic Mitch is attempting to fix a leaking radiator." "We got a coolant leak on one of our 40's here." "What I did was went down to the kitchen grabbed just some pepper right off the dinner table and uh, I'm gonna throw that in the radiator." "Something Gene taught me a long time ago." "We're gonna give it a try." "I mean out here if you can keep this things running, that's the difference of having a good season or not." "So as you see i mean, just as the pepper gets wet, you already see it's all sticking together on my fingers." "Well, that's kind of what it does in the cooling system." "Hopefully it works good enough to keep this truck running." "Go ahead and run it for a while." "Just keep an eye on it." "Hopefully that'll slow down the leak." "Narrator:" "At Eureka Creek, it's two weeks since Kevin took charge of the dredge." "Up to a hundred." "Narrator:" "Now, Tony has arrived for the first cleanup of the season." "It's a major test of Kevin's role as dredge master." "That looks okay to me." "Kevin, How's it going?" "Eh, It's going like usual -- slow." "But at the end of the day, it's been encouraging, considering it's only 100 hours on these mats." "Narrator:" "The moment of truth." "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait?" "When "you" did the cleanups?" "(laughter)" "Uh, we need 163 more ounces to pay for the dredge so." "For last year." "1. 2, 80, 90, 100, 10, 20," "160, 161, 162, 160 " " Stop!" "The dredge is paid off right there." "And that is mine because you can't spend it." "Uh-uh." "Narrator:" "From now on, all the gold caught by the million dollar dredge is profit." "Do it." "190, 200, 254," "55, 56, 57 258.5" "That's amazing." "Narrator:" "Even with all the setbacks, in two weeks, Kevin's captured $310,000 worth of gold." "On a par with the dredge's best cleanup last year." "See!" "I told you so." "Just leave us be and let us get fuckin to it." "I think he's whining." "Monica:" "I think he needs some cheese." "You?" "Ha ha ha ha ha ha." "I won't give up on Todd." "We're all gonna give this 150% effort." "We knew that the challenges would be different." "But there's not gold here." "I think we're up shit creek without a paddle." "Narrator: the Hoffman crew has run pay dirt for five straight days in their quest for High Bar's elusive nuggets." "Spinks:" "We're all pretty excited about coming back to Oregon." "The problem is is there's no rhyme nor reason to where the gold is." "Narrator: after producing only 3.55 ounces of gold on the first day..." "Shut it down." "Narrator: after producing only 3.55 ounces of gold on the first day..." "Narrator: ..." "The Hoffman crew is about to find out if High Bar can deliver on its promise." "Todd:" "We want all these mats out of here all the way down because I'll tell you what," "We need something good." "One, two, three." "[ engine starts ]" "Narrator:" "They've managed to run more than 10,000 yards of High Bar pay dirt." "Thurber: so far, it's slow but steady." "So, uh, showing signs of gold." "Hey." "How we doing?" "I, I just got it...spread out." "Hang on." "Alright." "Let's see how much we got." "Alright." "Narrator:" "To hit his 5,000-ounce season goal, Todd needs around 250 ounces every week." "Yeah, sure doesn't look like a whole lot, dad." "No it, for what we been running, it isn't." "35 on the money right there." "Narrator: 35 ounces is less than 15% of what they're hoping for." "It doesn't even cover running costs." "It is what it is. it's 35, and that's just not enough." "This is not working." "Well, that's what we used to get in a day." "No, Todd." "We got almost twice that in a day." "I don't want to panic, but I'm pissed." "You know?" "I was expecting a whole lot more." "Why don't we, uh, go up there and have a talk with the guys?" "I'll come with you." "Okay." "Alright." "What do you think?" "That cleanup didn't look very good." "Didn't look good at all." "Todd:" "So we got 35 ounces...out of all we ran." "What's been coming down to the gold room." "It's not enough, You know?" "It's not working out." "Something's wrong." "This stuff is the right material." "It just doesn't have any gold in it." "And it's what they been telling us that we gotta send to send to the plant." "There's no sense in going in the hole." "At some point if it doesn't improve." "I mean, we're with you but." "It's costing a lot of money." "We were looking for a miracle on a mountain." "Now we really need one, man." "We need a miracle." "Yup." "I don't know." "I just don't think that this is why we're here I think " " I think there's something better's gonna happen, I hope." "You know what, we've had our backs against the wall before." "We didn't do very good in the jungle and we might get our ass kicked again this year." "But I'll tell you what, We're not gonna go down without a fight." "Dad." "Heavenly Father, We ask that you would, uh.." "give us a miracle right now." "Uh, right now, we're asking for what we think is impossible." "But with you, it's possible." "So, that's what we pray for." "We pray for a lot of gold." "And, lord, we ask that you do it in a..." "Subs by JackT  most, uh, rapid way." "We pray this in your name, Amen." "Subs by JackT" "Amen." "Subs by JackT" "Amen." "Love you, guys." "Don't fuckin do that again." "Ness:" "Shut it down!" "On the all-new season of "Gold Rush"" "Watch out!" "Damn it." "Narrator:" "Gold mining legend Tony Beets." "Is relying on his family." "Fuck!" "No one can push your buttons like family can." "Narrator:" "To expand his Viking fleet." "Minnie:" "It looks like a piece of shit." "There's a lot more can go wrong on the water." "Narrator:" "And double down on the gold." "If it's in the ground, I can get it out of there." "Narrator:" "Parker Schnabel confronts a world of changes." "Parker:" "Oh fuck." "Think you've achieved everything?" "Just got finished burying my grandpa." "You don't need to tell me shit like that." "Narrator:" "But the 21-year-old mine boss..." "Great start, huh?" "Narrator : ..." "Has a new woman in his life." "I'm loving it." "She's just such a good rock truck driver." "Got to put a ring on that." "Narrator:..." "A brand-new wash plant..." "Sluicifer!" "Now that we're running dirt, we're not gonna stop for the next 3 months.." "Narrator: ..." "And he's expanding his empire." "We're starting a second operation." "Got my own operation, and, uh, I couldn't be more excited." "Narrator:" "Todd Hoffman is risking everything..." "Todd:" "My future isn't in the Klondike." "Narrator:..." "For a mountain of gold." "Todd:" "It's one of the best nuggets I've ever seen." "Narrator:" "But this season..." "Oh, no!" "Hunter, you okay?" "Narrator: .." "Goes from bad..." "Todd:" "Hey, hey, hey!" "Narrator: .." "Goes from bad..." "Narrator: ...to worse." "Turin:" "I love you like a brother." "I'm done." "Enough is enough." "I'm finished." "Todd:" "I've lost several hundred thousand dollars." "And my friends." "We gotta shut down."