"I guess we won't learn." "It's snowing and here we're taking on another big project." "320)\fs36} On this Gold Rush" "We actually got a pretty big shot at beating Todd." "All we gotta do is divert the creek." "Be a big frozen hole." "Can you clear it? Turning look out." "If you don't have the buckets and don't run." "Winter's setting in and I got twice the amount of pay and half the time to run it." "Fort Knox." "It's the biggest piece of equipment we've ever moved." "(HONK)" "Be careful." "(Snap)" "Whoa." "What was that?" "Wrong." "Two plants. 600 yards an hour." "We got a double barrel shotgun." "Coming at Parker." "cheering)" "This is when the season is won or lost." "340)\fs32} At Scribner Creek" "Parker Schnabel is mining a new section of the boundary cut." "His richest ground to date." "he has over 2500 ounces of gold." "if his ground continues to deliver." "The boundary cut's been really good." "♬ ♪I get the gold out of the ground.♬ ♬" "We gotta finish strong." "Todd Hoffman." "386)}The competition going on between us and Todd Hoffman is pretty close so." "We're expecting this to pay off really big and if it does it's probably gonna be just what we need." "come on man." "Gravel is fuckin frozen." "Basically a big frozen hole." "I'm fuckin pissed off." "Son of a bitch." "we got problems." "Too fuckin hard." "It's ripping the bucket apart." "I'm gonna have to talk to Parker." "000 dollars." "So what do you want to look at?" "This hole here." "This is frozen." "Shit." "Forty feet that way it's frost." "How much thawed dirt do you think we have?" "We run another week we'll be lucky huh?" "Yeah." "Earlier in the summer frozen pay gravels quickly thawed out." "frozen ground has no chance to thaw." "his season is over." "I want to show you something." "Rick comes up with a plan." "But it's a long shot." "Treasure Island is right there." "The boundary cut's right here." "Both amazing ground." "And right through the middle of it we got a big old thawed creek bed." "There's zero chance of it being frozen." "All we got to do is divert the creek." "It's not that simple." "True." "You know water license." "They lay out how to do it." "And it's pretty strict you know." "As far as building a stream bed for sure." "It'll have to be constructed like it's been a creek bed for the last 30 years." "Sure." "With fish habitat features." "We need to take it seriously you know." "We have to do it right." "they can take our water license." "it's thawed." "Could be something special." "I mean it's do-able." "And we've actually got a pretty big shot at beating Todd too." "Yeah man." "Then let's do it." "Sweet." "The plan:" "Construct a 120 foot wide channel to divert Dominion Creek west into neighboring Sulfur Creek." "Treasure Island and the boundary cut." "then we gotta do it." "386)}t's all or nothing right now." "We're running Monster Red." "386)}Pretty much 24/7 to get rid of this pile of pay." "Gotta get this pay run." "worth over 2.6 million dollars." "324 ounces short of their 2700 ounce season goal." "Get all this gold sluice off this hill." "There's even a chance we can beat Parker." "Todd is just 215 ounces behind his young rival." "and and a little bit of time." "With temperatures hovering at the freezing point.." "A snow squall hits the McKinnon Creek claim." "Friggen cold." "I didn't expect this snow." "The way I see it." "We got two to three weeks of pay here." "We don't have that kind of weather." "yeah." "this will continue to get worse." "it freezes." "All that gold's gonna be froze in this pile right here this winter." "I'm running day and night." "We're just balls to the walls." "There's no way to go any faster." "The Hoffman crew has barely sluiced half of their million dollar pay pile." "They're losing their battle with the frozen north." "Not gonna make it." "Wait a minute." "we ain't gonna make it?" "What I'm telling you is I don't think we got time to run this pay." "we gotta jump on next year." But if we leave this here we're never gonna get it." "I don't want to leave gold here before heading to Oregon." "Do all that work for somebody else to sluice your gold." "We gotta get this pay." "We cannot leave this pay here." "Don't stop." "000 yard pay pile." "But the Yukon winter has come early." "If temperatures continue to drop they'll be forced to leave behind half a million dollars in gold." "Todd has to come up with a way to get the gold his crew has worked for all season." "386)}There's definitely don't want to drive out of here and leave that pay." "There's just no way." "We're gonna get that pay ran come hell or high water." "This is the Christie's." "This is definitely one of the biggest mines on the Indian River." "It's a family operation." "I may have the answer to our problems." "Sheamus." "Yes?" "How's it going man." "Not bad Todd." "You?" "Good." "Todd's admired his neighbor's wash plant." "There it is Todd." "Fort Knox." "Wow." "Built out of 150 thousand pounds of steel." "It's easy to use." "It's easy to set up." "How many yards an hour?" "It'll do up to 350 yards when I crank it up." "Three hundred and fifty." "I personally think this is the best wash plant in the Klondike." "It's got things on it that no other wash plant in the Klondike has." "Fort Knox features a prewash box that pumps 4000 gallons of water a minute to blast every grain of gold off the rocks." "The concentrate is then slowed down by a unique bed of nails." "Before it enters a pair of opposing sluice runs fitted with 2 boil boxes." "forcing lighter material out while allowing large nuggets and the finest gold to settle." "but" "I'm asking to borrow probably a million dollar wash plant." "Just kinda stay back and let me talk to her." "Tara Christie." "Hey Tara." "Hi." "How are you?" "I'm kinda in a pinch." "Is there any chance that you might be able to rent me your wash plant?" "I don't think I can help you Todd." "We were just packing up to leave so. it's a" "Right." "Not great timing for us." "Um huh." "a decent cut of the gold?" "it's not gonna go to you or me." "Cause Peter will take it." "Cause I may not be back next year." "I might be in Oregon." "So I feel like if I don't work something out with you I'm gonna lose half a million dollars." "I can relate to that." "Yeah." "And if'n you're not coming back then I'd probably want to get it done too." "Okay." "I'm willing to stay and help you out." "It's gonna be a lot of work so um." "I guess we better get on it." "Thanks Tara." "We're gonna go for it like we usually do." "we don't." "Right now we're hoping for a win." "I've never really done a big.." "creek diversion like this." "to create something." "Make something beautiful." "Rick Ness starts work on the diversion channel to open up 1800 feet of thawed gravels beneath Dominion Creek." "The boundary cut is frozen solid." "Mechanic Mitch Blaschke monitors Goldzilla as it chews through the last of their thawed paydirt." "Got a serious problem." "changing speed." "It should run at a constant RPM." "then it ramps back up." "Hey." "Shut 'er down." "Might be Goldzilla's last shake." "Hey Rick." "Hey." "We got a serious problem up here." "We're not running." "For fuck sake." "I'm dropping this creek diversion." "little longer." "Parker arrives to assess the situation." "We got big problems." "I heard." "it's either in the switch panel or right up there with the motor." "What I'd like to do is go ahead and eliminate this if we can." "Okay." "And just make sure that it's the motor." "Okay." "Let's just make sure that that's it." "Parker wants to hot wire the shaker directly to their generator." "shaker deck." "To generator." "Right now we've eliminated a lot of connections and a lot of components in our switch gear." "the motor on the shaker." "If that's the case this plant might be done." "We're all wired up." "Now's the time to see if it works." "Hey." "Give me a little more." "Mitch slowly cranks the shaker up to full speed to test it under load." "Get going." "That's it." "That's what we wanted to see." "It's running a nice even RPM." "You can see how nice the rocks coming off the end shaker deck." "That's exactly what we're looking for right now." "and get that gold down to our sluice runs." "but his hunch was right." "And Goldzilla is back washing rocks." "Hey Rick." "She's fixed." "We're gonna go through the rest of the season now." "That's more like it." "Tony Beets' million dollar dredge has mined just 547 ounces of gold worth only six hundred thousand dollars." "Still 353 ounces short of paying for itself." "turning the dredge to mine an area with the best drill holes on his claim." "delivering less than fifty thousand dollars worth of gold." "Tony has made another radical decision." "no sense hammering away with over where with all." "We're not here just to wash rocks." "But the narrow pond is barely wider than the dredge making a 180 degree turn next to impossible." "maneuver till we make a 180." "I'm not really sure Tony." "Just maybe 2 days." "No." "Just don't make a quick U-turn." "You gotta step your way around the corner." "Okay." "We'll get on it." "Just make a U-turn." "Hate this fuckin stupidity." "The plan is to turn the dredge back towards the reliable ground that's delivered the best gold this season." "Gene suggested carving out the right bank to expand the dredge pond." "and attempt to lift the bucketline over the bank." "Fuck." "There's a hump right under us right here so." "I knew this corner was gonna cause us problems." "Need more room." "So we gotta dig that out." "Gotta lift the spud up and then push himself backwards enough to dig out the inside corner here." "Hey Matt." "Let's move back." "Go back that way a little." "Gene was right." "There isn't enough room to swing the dredge around." "The front pontoons are stuck on the bank." "Gene needs to backup then lower the buckets to dig out enough space to complete the turn." "now he's pushing himself back." "Matt." "Put the spud down there." "Well we've never done a 180 degree turn." "386)}I can't read a book and figure it out." "I gotta do it so I." "I don't think there's too many dredging manuals out there tell you how to drive a dredge." "Somebody out there will probably send me one now or something." "ready to run the bucket and dig out the bank." "easy." "Tony Beets' dredge is shut down." "the unforgiving Yukon winter will close out his season." "Hey." "What's up?" "I only want good news." "You gotta be kidding me." "No." "Wow." "Then we're down." "I mean you don't run." "So you really do not have a choice." "It's a waste of time." "You too." "more than 24 dredges have mined the valleys of the Yukon." "there's an abandoned dredge about the same size as Tony's." "the buckets have to be exactly 19 inches across." "23 inches wide." "That other one's only 19." "They're substantially bigger than the other dredges." "Tony and Gene's treasure hunt is a bust." "Might as well head back." "Tony and crew have no choice but to start packing up for the long Yukon winter." "and went antique hunting in Dawson City." "so." "Kinda lucked out you might say." "Guess what I found you." "I'm not saying." "They had flowers growing in them so." "I gave them the flowers back." "Okay." "The first bucket is a perfect fit." "Just one more bucket and they're back in business." "306)}This bucket has sat neglected in a garden for 40 years." "It's pinhole is blocked by an old rusted bushing." "cut through the bushing with oxy-acetyline." "Happy?" "the dredge buckets are once again chewing through Klondike pay dirt." "Ah." "There we go." "Might as well make some money while we can." "The dredge continues it's turn back towards Tony's proven ground." "You're welcome." "Uh huh." "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha." "We're banking on Fort Knox helping us run this big pile of paydirt." "we don't get a second chance." "Kevin Hiatt continues to feed Monster Red from the million dollar pay pile." "the rest of the Hoffman crew prepares to haul in a 2nd massive wash plant." "Fort Knox." "150 thousand pounds." "I guarantee it's the biggest piece of equipment we've ever moved." "Ever." "Well this is the first time we've moved a plant like this." "We've never moved it 8 miles up the valley by truck." "386)}The biggest thing is we just got to keep everything flat going down the road cause it's quite top heavy." "it will topple over." "Todd joins Sheamus in the cab of his vintage logging truck." "Dave guides from behind in the loader." "Dave." "You ready?" "Ready Todd." "Alright." "Let's go." "And hopefully we don't "F" this up." "Sheamus has to keep his million dollar wash plant perfectly stable." "Whoa." "Really rocking." "Dave." "How we looking?" "I did slide just a little bit." "Yeah. 10-4." "We'll watch it." "Call it out as you see it." "10-4." "Their only access to McKinnon Creek is a twisting 8 mile stretch of narrow dirt road." "Hey Dave." "We're coming in the S curves." "Keep your eye out on these trees for us." "You're rubbing this corner pretty tight." "Whoa." "Oh yeah." "You got that one." "Just doing a little brush clearing as we go here." "This last corner here is kinda tight." "You got it." "Keep on going." "Don't stop." "Alright." "We were close there a couple spots." "But you made it." "There's one final hurdle as Fort Knox approaches the Hoffman's claim." "Last real obstacle's this." "Don't worry about this." "Left side." "Hear that?" "It's a hitch." "Up ahead." "A dangerous uneven section of road." "Whoa." "Whoa." "What was that?" "Whoa." "Look out." "Todd." "It's gonna flip over." "flirts with disaster." "Whoa" "Look out." "Dave." "Come up behind us." "We need a push." "Alright." "I'm right behind you." "Say a prayer." "Come on baby." "Dave steadies the back end of the trailer with his loader bucket." "Keeping Fort Knox from toppling over as it slowly clears uneven ground." "Keep going Dave." "Push push push push push Dave push." "Alright." "Whoo." "Yeah buddy." "We got it." "(Honk honk)" "I think we're home free to the mine." "Monster Red." "Meet Fort Knox." "Yeah." "There you go buddy." "Two plants." "to help sluice a massive mountain of pay dirt." "We gotta get this gold into our pockets man." "Tomorrow. 600 yards an hour." "We can be running guys." "Alright." "Let's hit it." "Okay." "Whoo." "This is a pretty big project to take on this late in the year but." "You gotta go where the gold is and this is the only place left that is thawed." "they have dug and fortified the new 120 foot wide channel." "Inspectors have given Parker the go ahead to divert Dominion Creek." "I guess we won't learn." "It's snowing and here we're taking on another big project." "I really appreciate the effort that you've put into this." "It looks beautiful." "So let's get to it." "What needs to get done?" "Maybe you can scoop up some of these big boulders onto the bank like you wanted to do and." "When we take out this last berm here it should all flow nice and gently through here." "Join up with Sulfur down there." "Bingo bango." "Perfect." "Let's do it." "Let's do it." "When there's time make sure that we do things right here you know I. I want to have a future up here and that means doing things the right way." "so." "We put a lot of effort into it." "We did it right." "And hopefully net us a bunch of gold." "I'm about ready to pop the cork on this baby." "you can let 'er fly." "just like we wanted." "Seems to be running really slow." "Ain't running right." "What the fuck?" "The water is not quite flowing like it should but." "What do you think's going on?" "I don't know man." "Something's going on with the water level." "I gotta dig it down deeper." "You do that and we'll have to regrade the whole channel." "But that's gonna take another week." "What other choice do we got?" "The water's not flowing." "Well maybe there's something weird going on upstream." "I'm gonna roll up there and check it out." "Hopefully this is a quick fix." "Get it all going the right way here." "Well there's our problem." "we got an ice dam." "Can you clear it?" "Oh hell yeah." "Woo-hoo." "Fuck you winter." "All clear buddy." "How's she looking?" "Alright." "It's flowing again." "Right on man." "Shooter." "Rick opens up the channel." "Dominion Creek finally flows into Sulfur." "Good job man." "Thanks buddy." "Ha ha ha." "Looks good." "Hey yeah." "It looks good." "Nice and wide like we were looking for." "Yeah." "Looks amazing." "Give it a day to settle down and it will look like it never happened." "And now we've got a nice dry creek bed right behind us." "Yeah buddy." "Parker's creek diversion has opened up 1800 feet of thawed creek gravels." "His dream of a 3000 ounce season is still alive." "Now there just needs to be some gold in here." "Yeah." "At Paradise Hill the dredge crew gathers for their weekly gold weigh." "Hi guys." "Hi mother." "chasing good drill holes." "they mined just 43 ounces of gold." "and broken buckets." "The run was a little shorter this time so." "Five." "This gold represents 3 days worth of running." "50" "It's better than last time." "That's pretty good." "Yeah it is." "62 ounces worth almost seventy thousand dollars from only 3 days of running." "The dredge is back on the gold." "We're about back on track to where we should be doing so." "Tony still has to find 300 ounces of gold." "But the Yukon winter is already knocking on the door." "I feel proud of what we've done here." "300)\fs32}At Scribner Creek" "Parker takes a moment to appreciate his team's careful land management and wilderness reclamation." "It's an area that we've mined and reclaimed." "and putting in fish structures." "And building the banks right and all the slopes right and it's a complicated thing." "And it looks good." "Not only does it look good but its good habitat too." "we've done a good job of putting things the way they should be." "You're welcome otters." "They love it here." "(laughter)" "Hey guys." "Come on over." "Parker has the results of the cleanup." "Ooh." "That's a big jar." "it started off." "you know." "My goal was to get up here and go gold mining." "But we set that 3000 ounce goal." "And that was a big ask." "And you guys have taken that on." "whether we hit our goal or not." "And going into this cleanup we are at 2591." "with this.." "How full is it?" "Parker still needs another 409 ounces." "Whoa." "416 ounces." "We're at 3007." "(happy noise)" "Parker's crew of young guns has beaten their season goal." "3007 ounces." "Worth a phenomenal 3.3 million dollars." "and it paid off." "That's one hell of an achievement right there." "The job's done." "for me the job's never done." "and I don't know if that's gonna do it." "I don't know if 3000 ounces." "I don't know if that's gonna do it." "there is time to sluice a little bit longer." "you're more than welcome to leave. then we're gonna go for it." "Who's with me?" "we pushed that plant pretty hard." "I don't know how many more days it's got left in it." "That's a good point." "and take it for a good season and start putting stuff away." "and I'd rather go now." "Know when to quit." "It's time to go guys." "Let's wrap up." "Call 'er a year." "Jack to crew." "Yeah Jack." "I've got something to show you guys and I'd like you to come to the gold room." "10-4." "Jack gathers the Hoffman crew for the gold weigh." "This season they've mined 2376 ounces of gold." "Whoa." "That's a pile dad." "Yeah." "How much is here?" "I don't know." "I haven't weighed it yet." "they still need another 324 ounces." "Moment of truth guys." "Thirty." "Eighty." "125." "180." "200." "275." "300." "320." "334.45 ounces" "(a roar and whoops of joy) 334 ounces." "Over360 thousand dollars is the biggest cleanup of their lives." "710 ounces." "We did it." "We doubled last year." "We hit our goal." "The Hoffman crew has hit a goal that once seemed impossible." "they've doubled their gold total from last season." "but two monster wash plants." "287)\fnLucida Calligraphy} Subs by JackT" "This is our season." "600 yards an hour." "coming at Parker. {\alphaHFF}" "360)\fs36} Up ahead. 386)} position"