"Narrator:" "On this "Gold Rush"" "Parker:" "Every day he's not sluicing, it's costing us 20,000, 30,000 bucks." "I don't want you guys fuckin' following me right now." "I don't even wanna hear it." "We need it running." "It really feels like mine right now." "Shut it down!" "Shut it down." "What the hell's he doing here?" "Todd:" "Coming to Oregon wasn't the right move for us." "I am tired of feeling like a frickin' loser." "Another day, another 2,500 yards of dirt." "Narrator:" "At Scribner Creek," "Parker Schnabel is running 250 yards of pay dirt an hour through his wash plant, Sluicifer." "Parker:" "There's lots of ground open." "So Tyson and I should be able to keep motoring on our own for quite a while." "That's the plan, anyway." "Narrator:" "Two-thirds of the way through the season," "Parker is less than a third of the way to his 4,000-ounce, $4.8-million goal." "Rick and the rest of the boys are down in Indian River." "Narrator:" "Parker is depending on Rick to salvage his season by opening up a second operation." "Parker:" "Now I'm waiting for Rick to be ready to start sluicing down there 'cause we're burning daylight and burning it fast." "Every day he's not sluicing, it's probably costing us 20,000, 30,000 bucks." "And it's not two operations until there are two wash plants sluicing." "Narrator:" "Five miles west at Indian River, foreman Rick Ness has been struggling for nine weeks to get his operation up and running." "He's finally stockpiled over 10,000 yards of pay dirt." "And he's determined to be running by the end of the day." "The one thing that's bringing Indian River to life is just perseverance." "It's something that my grandpa taught me." "In fact, the name of his boat was Perseverance." "That's why I've got this tattooed on my hand." "And that's the biggest reason why Indian River's going online today is 'cause I never gave up on it." "Narrator:" "The heart of Rick's operation is Big Red, the wash plant that in three seasons, sluiced over $5 million worth of gold for Parker." "But it's stood abandoned for the past year." "How are you liking having everybody's hand-me-downs?" "This is kind of like having a bunch of big brothers that you get all their old worn-out clothes." "except I'm older than the person" "I'm getting all this hand-me-down shit from." "Rick's right-hand man, Brennan Ruault, is smoothing the rim." "It's a lot more lighter of an atmosphere down here." "Everybody just comes to work, gets their job done, and, you know, have a little bit of fun in between." "And it's great." "That's how it should be." "Ness:" "Last year, we weren't using Big Red at all, nor did we have any plans to." "So we started cannibalizing it." "Big Red's kind of like Humpty Dumpty's wash plant here." "And now, I've got to try and find all the parts and pieces, try and get 'em all back together again." "Give me a little boom down." "Good!" "Careful with her!" "It's the only one we got!" "Right on the money." "Good." "It's on to the next step." "Narrator:" "To feed Big Red," "Rick's hired a 40-foot hopper feeder from a neighbor." "All that's left is for Rick to haul the 10,000-pound load up the ramp to the plant." "Please have the clearance." "Really steep, really muddy." "I don't wanna do it." "Oh, man." "First gear, diff's locked." "All right." "Enough thinking about this hill." "I'm just gonna give her." "This thing slips back, I'm pretty much screwed." "I'll have no way to stop it." "All right." "Just get through this muddy part, baby." "Shit!" "Oh fuck!" "Fuck." "Come on, baby." "Don't spin." "Don't spin." "We're spinning." "Fuck." "Way too muddy." "Fuck fuck." "Hey, Brennan." "Can you help me out?" "Ruault:" "Move the whole thing?" "Let's give her." "I'm sick of screwing around." "Bucket to bucket, bro." "Is that looking good?" "Feels like the ass end of my machine's coming off the ground a bit." "Fuck." "Oh, that's teamwork." "Teamwork." "Oh, that's a long unit." "There you go." "Perfect." "That's good!" "Whoo!" "[ both laugh ]" "Blaschke:" "You try and get 1,000 ounces on your first season starting halfway through," "That's a pretty big disadvantage." "All we need's 1,000 hours of run time." "Of all the wash plants I've seen, this is the wash plant-iest." "Dun, dun, dun, dun." "[ snake rattling ]" "Know, I can't believe what's happened this summer." "Narrator:" "Two weeks ago, Todd Hoffman's crew quit, leaving just his family and old friend Jim Thurber." "Hundreds of thousands of dollars in the hole." "And I got all this equipment leased." "But I have a little bit of fuel in the tank." "At this point, I really don't have any other choice." "We're gonna run the mine." "Narrator:" "At the start of the season," "Todd set a $6-million, 5,000-ounce season goal." "Twelve weeks on, he has a disastrous 206 ounces." "Todd:" "Feel like we did all the right things." "Those old-timers didn't leave us much." "You know, maybe coming to Oregon wasn't the right move for us." "Narrator:" "Todd is loading trucks with dirt, desperately hoping to hit another pocket of gold." "Todd:" "Looking back on this whole season, and I'm thinking to myself, you know, how did the train get so far off the track?" "Right now, Todd is uh..." "he's acting scared, you know?" "And that's not what I raised." "And he's gonna have to trust God on this one." "That's all there is to it." "Hunter:" "You know, I know my Dad's really down right now." "Just seems like a big failure, but" "It's not his fault." "Hey." "How you doing, Dad?" "I think I'm at the end of my rope." "Just try to stay positive." "I don't know, man." "I'm just sorry." "I don't know." "I don't know what else to say." "Maybe I'm just fooling myself." "Well, I don't know." "Whatever happens," "I'm just here with you and grandpa." "Narrator:" "At the end of the day, the Hoffmans shut down Monster Red to check if they are on the gold." "Grandpa, you wanna kill the blade mill?" "Blade mill going off!" "How's it look, Hunter?" "I don't know." "It doesn't look very good to me." "Another downer." "Oh." "Here's the deal, guys." "I'm scratching and biting for pay that's...that Andy missed." "He didn't miss much." "No, he didn't." "You know, I mean, there's a little dinky bit there." "But it's just not enough." "I don't know what to do about it." "It's up to you." "Thurber, let's go down in there." "Let's see if we can find some other pay dirt." "And see what we come up with." "Narrator:" "After seven weeks at the Buckland, moving over 400,000 yards of dirt," "Todd has only managed to find 68 ounces, worth just $80,000." "We need to find a pocket of something, Thurb." "Well, dude, that looks promising right there." "We'll pan it." "We're gonna pan around, see if Andy left any spots back here.." "on top of bedrock." "Nothing in that stuff at all." "Really?" "Not even a... speck." "Right there." "See that, that little river gravel?" "Yep." "Well, he left it for some reason." "We'll see." "Weird not having the guys here, huh?" "I know." "It's just so quiet." "You don't hear the machinery running, nothing." "Anything?" "Not yet." "I haven't seen any." "We're the last four original guys on my team." "And uh... what it looks like is we started together and we're gonna finish together." "Look at that." "That was laid in there." "That's stream bed." "Yup." "Yep." "That's definitely stream-borne there." "Yeah?" "Yep." "That looks more like it." "You know, this is some better looking stuff." "This here's" "You know, It's all been running down the stream." "Yeah." "That looks.." "That looks way more..." "that looks more like it." "Yeah." "We'll see." "Come on, baby." "Okay." "Come on, baby." "Yep." "And there you go." "There's some little ones in here, Thurb." "Mm-hmm." "There is gold in here." "But it ain't impressive." "But it's gold." "Narrator:" "Last year, Tony Beets spent $1.5 million on a second dredge which has been abandoned 100 miles upriver since 1952." "He's rebuilt a 60-foot power barge named the Jasmine B, in memory of his middle daughter, to transport the dredge down the Yukon River." "A few days ago, he hired an experienced captain, Wayne, who's been making final preparations." "But things haven't been working out." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Okay." "Narrator:" "Without a captain, the barge is going nowhere." "But Tony already has a back-up plan." "Gene Cheeseman rebuilt the Jasmine B and is an experienced skipper on coastal waters but has never navigated the Yukon River." "Before taking on the role of barge captain, he wants to scout the route." "First time I've ran up the river." "Just gonna check things out and see what it's gonna be like to run the barge up there." "So, just get a feel for things." "Narrator:" "Gene plans to head south from Dawson City and explore the 100 miles of Yukon River that he'll have to safely navigate to get to and from Thistle Creek." "You know, I've been on the water quite a bit all my life but never on a big river like this." "Very nice." "Narrator:" "At Indian River, Rick Ness has vowed he'll have his new operation up and running today." "He has Big Red's hopper feeder in place." "He's attached the sluices." "The final step...just add water." "Just hooking up the water supply line to the wash plant." "Down a little!" "Down!" "Set her down right there!" "Perfect!" "I'll just kind of kick this end over, Rick!" "Okay." "It's getting there." "It'll be impressive soon." "I can't believe we found all the parts and pieces to make this plant again." "That's it." "That's it?" "Firing up." "[ engine sputters ]" "Come on." "Come on, you jerk." "It's been sitting a while." "Let me prime the fuel." "This is just the Generator." "[ laughs ]" "This just the first step." "Go ahead and try and spin it up again." "[ engine starts ]" "Oh, hello!" "Booyah!" "That's what we wanted!" "Oh, yeah!" "Like it never turned off." "Try the shaker out and see if it's turning the right way." "That's a big pay." "Step one." "She's rising from the ashes!" "Dude!" "This is gonna be the first time Big Red's seen water in a long time." "Rick, fire it up!" "Oh, yeah." "Water to the plant." "[ engine starts ]" "I drug this plant up here." "You know, we set the sluices." "Mitch and" "Kelly and Brennan and I. We set this feeder in here." "I went and got this feeder." "I made the deal for this feeder." "This... really feels like... feels like mine right now." "It's awesome." "Damn it!" "Well, that ain't good." "This thing is fucked." "This thing is fucked." "Watch out!" "Got ourselves a sprinkler." "Damn it!" "Narrator:" "Big Red is ready to fire up." "But its water supply is leaking." "Blaschke:" "We got water blowing out here on the other side." "More broken valves." "Hey!" "Shut it off!" "We got a leak." "Where?" "Right at the lay-flat." "We can cut it here and move it a foot but..." "I mean, trying to drag it out buried like that, I don't know if you'll be able to pull it through." "I'll send Brennan up here." "Okay." "I'll get this undone." "Narrator:" "Mechanic Mitch removes the leaking section of pipe." "Ruault:" "I don't need to get right to the pipe, I don't think." "Yeah." "You just take some weight off of it." "To move it closer to the plant, Brennan needs to dig out the pipe." "Fuck." "[ engine shuts off ]" "[ sighs ] Shit!" "Fuck sakes!" "[ sighs ] Shit." "Must have got it with the bucket, 'cause it was way off to the side." "[ sighs ]" "Fuck!" "Rick's gonna be fuckin' pissed." "Okay." "Quit filming for a second there." "Just fuckin' pissed." "I don't want you guys fuckin' following me right now." "What's up?" "I fuckin' nicked the pipe, man and I put a hole in it." "Aw, damn it." "I was going so fuckin' slow." "I couldn't have fuckin' gone any slower." "Man, I could barely pull the joysticks 'cause I knew it was close." "I apologize, buddy." "I'm fuckin' sorry." "Ness:" "No, it's all right." "Shit happens." "Ah." "Um, We'll need the fusion machine and we'll need a Generator." "We still got a lot of time today, so..." "Don't stress on it." "Let's just get it fixed." "Yeah." "Yeah." "For sure." "Alright" "Thank you bud." "Yep." "If that had have been Parker that came down and I had to tell him that, he would've just.." "exploded,you know." "You know how he is, I mean.." "I'm happy that it was Rick." "He could tell how disappointed I was in myself." "So he, uh you know, he just said, "Let it go." "Don't let it ruin your day."" "Seen the fusion machine?" "The fusion machine?" "Yeah." "What for?" "I just fuckin' was exposing the water line for Big Red and I clipped it." "I, I don't even wanna hear it." "It's nothing I haven't done before, but we need it fuckin' running." "We need that plant running." "It's over by the CMI container over there." "All right." "Sounds good." "I'll get on it, man." "Ness:" "I'm trying my best to not...upset about it." "I'm not fuckin' mad at Brennan." "I've... never really come unglued on anybody out here." "And I really don't plan on it, you know, it's" "I don't see the point in it." "That's Parker's M.O. That's not mine, you know?" "It's gonna set us back a couple hours." "Get it fixed and move on." "Narrator:" "Brennan's mistake means they have to remove several feet of pipe before repairing and dragging the entire pipe forward to fix the original leak." "Ness:" "Gonna try and get her lined up with the pipe." "It's 5:00 p.m." "and every hour that the plant isn't running, Rick loses $1,500 in gold." "[ engine starts ]" "Just gonna take a few minutes." "We got to heat the pipe up." "Once the pipe gets heated, then we pull the heat blade out." "Join the two pieces together." "Then it's just a matter of letting 'em cool." "Hopefully within an hour now." "Be putting dirt through Big Red." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come on." "Come onnnn!" "[hi pitch] Get hellip." "Blaschke:" "While this thing's cooling down, do you wanna go put the end on that and then just join the..." "snap connector?" "Yeah." "We got our pipe back together." "We just got to go..." "Now, to fix our original leak." "It looks good." "Fire it up, See what it does." "Fire it up." "You ready for the shaker?" "It is happening." "First bit of Indian River pay dirt going through Big Red right now." "Booyah!" "Narrator:" "Rick's achieved his goal one hour before sunset." "Parker:" "Well, I just walked in." "The sluice box put a big smile on my face." "I haven't had this thing running in... over, well over a year, you know?" "Ness:" "Look at this." "I got a frigging rainbow coming down into the cut down here." "Uh." "That means there's lots of gold in this cut." "Pretty damn sure." "[ laughs ]" "Narrator:" "Tony Beets needs to barge his 70 year old dredge down the Yukon River." "But before his new skipper, Gene Cheeseman, takes the helm of his $250,000 power barge, they're out scouting a safe route." "Nothing worries me so far." "No!" "No." "Yeah." "Yeah." "Oh, yeah." "The 2,000-mile Yukon River is a constantly changing network of channels." "In places, it's over a mile wide." "And the depth can drop to less than a foot." "They've just entered one of the most braided and shallow sections of the route." "Yeah." "It's shallowing right up." "[ beeping ]" "Well, that depth sounder ain't lying, is it?" "No." "Pretty tricky here." "I don't know." "Can you grab that pipe pole and see?" "I can feel us sitting on the bottom even." "Fuck." "Yeah." "Well, I can't even make it in this." "I got to pay attention before we end up in a real problem." "Looks like there's a lot of water there." "But definitely not deep enough." "The outboard on Gene's skiff needs just 18 inches of water." "Tony's barge, fully laden, draws three times that." "Okay." "Oh." "I'm gonna slow down here and just kind of nose in there." "Yeah." "Whoa." "Whoa." "Whoa." "Whoa!" "[ skiff thuds ]" "We came all this way." "we're right there by Thistle." "And we can't get there from here." "Narrator:" "Tony has the perfect barge to transport his dredge back to Dawson," "The 60-foot, 60-ton Jasmine B." "But scouting the route to Thistle Creek has proved he needs a highly experienced Yukon captain to operate it." "Two large vessels operate out of Dawson City..." "The car ferry and a tourist paddle-wheeler." "Tony's only hope... the captain of the Klondike Spirit." "Tony has known captain Brad Whitelaw for over a decade." "There you are." "Hey, Tony!" "All right." "Come on in." "Holy crap." "Come on in." "I'm all right." "Oh, Tony." "Man, I'm flattered." "That's, uh..." "Yeah, well..." "There's nothing more I'd rather do than drive a barge like that." "Yeah." "You can't be taking chances out there, Tony." "Somebody's gonna get hurt." "You got to have somebody that does know the river." "There's uh... these sandbars and the main channel," "It changes all the time." "And, especially a ship that big," "You wanna do it right." "I'd really love to do that." "It's just my hands are tied." "We do three, sometimes six trips a day." "This tour boat is just loaded." "And it's such a good gig and..." "I can't turn my back on this for a day." "Ohh." "Tony, my season goes on for, well, at least another month or so." "But if I can help you out then..." "You just get a hold of me and see where we are then." "Absolutely." "Until Tony finds a captain, his dream of running a second dredge is on hold." "Fuck!" "Todd:" "I found some pay down here." "Hopefully, it's good." "Sometimes, it'll fool you." "Have a lot more gold than you think." "Narrator:" "The Hoffman crew is down to just four men." "Todd:" "It's definitely not one of my best summers I've ever had." "I'll tell you that much." "Narrator:" "One hundred feet down in the cut," "Todd thinks he's finally hit a streak of side pay that could get him out of the hole." "Todd:" "Trying to stay positive." "Gonna go ahead and run this dirt." "And hopefully... it works out." "Hey, guys, uh." "Somebody's pulling in." "What the hell's he doing here?" "How's it going, Todd?" "Not so good." "Not so good, Freddy." "Kind of what I heard." "What are you doing here?" "Well, I got word that.." "pretty much everybody headed out on you, Todd." "That's probably the worst part of everything, is because we got... seven years of mining together." "And... and I never thought it would end like that, you know?" "Sorry the way I left." "I just want you know I wasn't bailing on you." "I've been, I've been pretty dang busy." "It sure felt like it, Freddy." "It felt like it." "I didn't bail out on you." "What... where'd you go?" "Colorado." "Prospecting... on a friend of mine's ground." "For him?" "No, for us." "What do you mean, "for us"?" "Have a look at that." "That's a 2,000-yard test." "That's 19 ounces." "Wow." "I've got an old wash plant I'm putting together out of pieces." "But uh... you know, I don't have heavy equipment." "And I don't have a team." "I literally don't have anybody left." "I just have a little skeleton crew." "And I... but I got machines?" "I got machines galore." "We can mine this property with five people." "I think if we come together, we can do something." "But we're gonna have to make a decision quick because it's at 10,000 feet." "And winter comes fast there." "Wow." "It's high in the Rockies." "I don't know, Freddy." "There's decent gold there." "I think we might be able to uh... turn the season around, at least break even." "I don't know if, mentally and... spiritually, I can muster another push this year, man." "Have a look at that gold." "and just let me know, okay?" "Let me know as soon as you can." "See you, Freddy." "[ sighs ]" "Narrator:" "At Scribner Creek..." "All right." "I'll give you another offer." "Producer John Milmo has worked on "Gold Rush" for two years but has never owned any gold." "If you crawl through the pipe, I'll give you two gold nuggets." "Milmo:" "Crawl through there?" "It actually makes me feel a bit claustrophobic." "Milmo just doesn't want the gold bad enough." "Around here, we do what it takes to get the gold." "I'm leaving." "Cameraman:" "He's going in!" "He's going in!" "[ laughter ]" "How's it going?" "It's going great." "A little tight here, huh?" "[ laughter ]" "You manned up." "Do I get to pick my nuggets?" "Yep." "Ha ha!" "Sweet." "What do you want, earrings?" "Milmo:" "My mum quite likes delicate." "You want those two?" "Thank you very much." "My pleasure." "[ laughs ]" "Bring on the dirt!" "Narrator:" "Rick Ness has just opened up Parker Schnabel's second operation at Indian River." "See if we can get 1,000 ounces before we get snowed out." "Narrator:" "Scribner Creek has not paid out as hoped." "So Parker's relying on Rick's team to make up the shortfall." "Finally got her, buddy!" "Fuck, yeah man." "Good feeling." "You know what's funny?" "With this late of a start," "I'm still gonna beat the Hoffmans." "[laughter]" "You already did." "[ both laugh ]" "Actually, you wanna feed this a few buckets so I can run up there and look?" "Yeah." "Whoo!" "Congratulations." "Thanks, buddy." "The old girl's running again." "Ooh." "Fuck, fuck." "Ness:" "Jam-up." "Shit." "Shut it down!" "Shut it down!" "Shut it off." "Blaschke:" "Cut the conveyor!" "Hey!" "Get me a bar!" "Let's get her shut off before it rips the belt!" "Watch that you don't push it down too much." "Still have to get it up." "[ machine powers down ]" "Here, watch out, Parker." "You got one coming back at you." "There she goes." "Big cut." "Holy shit." "That's a big fucker." "Oh, wait." "There's a couple." "This feeder would work perfect for you." "After today, not my problem." "[ laughter ]" "Narrator:" "Big Red has run for six hours." "While it's down, they take the opportunity to check the sluices." "Holy smokes." "Look at that." "Oh, yeah." "There's some gold in that fucker." "Hello." "You got some over here." "Oh, yeah." "I didn't even get a look in the sluice box." "It's all in the distribution run." "Dude, that is awesome." "That's the first gold out of Indian River right there." "Everybody's done a great job getting this thing going." "Now it's time to get some hours on the box" "See if we can find some gold." "Ness:" "Hell yeah." "Ohh." "You know what?" "I'm proud of everybody." "We've been busting our ass on this." "And I know that we're not the greatest operators in the world." "But we, we kept the plant running, you know?" "Looking at the sluice boxes today, and..." "They don't look good." "Don't look good at all." "Hunter:" "We gave it our best shot here." "And I don't think it can get any worse." "So can't get worse than that." "I am tired... of losing." "I am tired of feeling like a frickin' loser." "Freddy Dodge came by today." "He didn't just split on us." "He's actually been testing a new claim in Colorado." "And he wants us to come mine it with him." "He has a plant." "But he doesn't have the guys." "And he doesn't have the machines." "We got the machines." "Is there good gold there?" "Yes." "This is what he handed me." "And it's 19 ounces of gold." "This came out of 2,000 yards." "Thurber:" "That's nice." "Georgia:" "Really?" "Wow." "So there's a possibility of salvaging this season." "Really?" "And the bad part..." "It is way up in the mountains." "It's at 10,500 feet." "Holy crap." "The snow is gonna come earlier than the Klondike." "And this could be strike three." "You got to... we all got to know that going in." "I'll take this..." "this third chance 'cause, you know, nothing... nothing's looking good." "Thurber:" "When would we leave?" "We'd leave now, like morning." "Seems so late in the season to go try again but..." "It's gonna be hard" "If we go there or if we stay here." "And this doesn't look good." "So I'd rather go for something that sounds better..." "Yeah." "And try to finish stronger 'cause I... honestly," "I don't see anything changing at the Buckland." "My family's gonna think I'm nuts." "I mean... but..." "We have no other option." "If we could salvage this season in any way," "I'm for it." "If we go out, let's go out kicking and screaming, okay?" "All right, guys." "Guess what?" "It looks like we're packing up, heading to Colorado." "Let's do it." "Let's do it.[giggles]" "Okay, then." "Ha ha ha." "Great." "Narrator:" "Two days later, after failing dismally in his home state of Oregon," "Todd Hoffman is moving his entire operation 1,000 miles south to attempt to save his season" "With what will be his third mine in just three months." "Subs by Jack T" "Freddy threw us a lifeline and we're gonna grab on to that lifeline and kick some ass." "Here we go!" "If I had to wrap it up into one word, it'd be hope." "Well, there's your problem." "Narrator:" "On the next "Gold Rush"..." "This is a fuckin' piece of shit." "That's toast." "Yeah." "We are kind of dead in the water at this point." "Blaschke:" "That thing is huge!" "I'm not gonna say it's the dumbest thing we've ever done." "But it's gonna be right up there." "This is Rick's gold." "Ness: 94.35" "Yeah!" "We're in the last-chance saloon." "Dodge:" "Snow on the mountains." "We don't have time to waste." "We will not quit." "Seeing gold, boys."