Gold Rush: Dave Turin's Lost Mine

What we have accomplished this season is unbelievable.

Every season's hard, but this is the hardest season

I've ever experienced.

We will remember this year,

And there'll be more tears shed,

But there'll be joy.

Because we went through it together.

You can measure success on the amount of gold,

The amount of money you make.

But, in the end, it's really about the people.

That are closest to you.

It's about family, it's about friends.

The whole last bucket, buddy.

Last bucket!

There she goes! Come on!

Good job, guys. Good job.

We did it. We're out of here.

Done.

All right. Hey, case, would you go and...?

Yeah.

- Good, dave. - Yeah!

Yeah!

At lynx creek,

Out of ground and with less than a week to go

morning, guys.

Team turin needs 31 ounces.

To reach its million-dollar dream.

I know we talked about going to find.

Some more ground, but we're out of options.

We got to find some ground. I know everybody's tired,

Want to go home and see family,

But let's finish this strong.

- Yeah. - We're still here.

With our boots on, dave.

What if we look at the map,

Kind of figure this out all together?

I mean, we've all been here a while.

All we need is one cut.

If there's gold in there, maybe it was overlooked.

We haven't pulled 30 ounces a week yet here in arizona.

So we've got three excavators.

Let's split up. Divide and conquer,

See if we can find some ground.

It's been a long year, and, I really want to hit.

A million-dollar season,

And it's not just for the million dollars.

It's for the crew, it's for jesse and his family.

Jesse's wife, rhenda, is coming.

So, right now, we're focused,

And I think we're going to do it.

It's either go big or go home.

Four months ago.

Welcome to bobs creek.

High in the colorado rockies,

Team turin kicked off its third mining season.

We're onto something special this year.

They faced a constant battle...

Come on, dig!

With the ground... Whatever it takes.

And the local community.

Whatever we do is going to be wrong.

Dang it!

Then tragedy struck.

He did not.

First, dave's dad.

Then, their brother in arms, jesse goins.

Is he okay?

My god.

But the team fought back.

Let's hit it.

- Show me the gold, buddy. - Whoo!

And hit big gold to keep a promise.

This season's for jesse.

We get the privilege to give rhenda and her family.

The gold that jesse earned.

Jesse!

After smashing their 400-ounce target,

Dave upped the ante.

What if we turned it into a million-dollar season?

In the north, he hunted for their future.

I think we're in virgin ground.

And in arizona...

This is where team turin was born, right here in lynx creek.

The team set its sights on 100 more ounces.

We're on our way to a million-dollar season, and it starts right now.

But last week

I'm seeing three colors in here.

They ran out of ground

our living depends on this!

Me!

And failed to hit their weekly gold target.

Well, I hate to tell you this, but we got 24.35.

Now, with just four days left of the season

we kind of know the ground.

Team turin must strike one last pot of gold,

Or fail to hit their million-dollar goal.

Well, I was thinking we go up this one.

Okay.

I'm hoping that we've missed that.

Because there's not a lot of volume there.

So, why don't you and I head up there?

What do you, guys, think?

I think we should go more upstream.

- Like, right in the middle? - Yeah.

It's the most tributaries, you know, that we never got to really go all the way up.

So we'll go on up, give it a look.

- All right. - What do you think, case?

You know what? It's a gamble,

But the headwaters up here by this dam,

Honestly, there's been so many stories I've read and seen.

About big gold still left below that fain dam. Right here.

I don't know, case. This has been dredged.

- What do you think? - I'm with you, case.

The way I'm looking at it, dave,

Is if you're going to hit here,

They're going to hit here, well, we got to go up.

All right, give it a try.

So, we got three spots. This is our last chance.

- Let's get it. - Let's get it.

All in!

This is it. We don't hit it,

You know, it's kind of a failure.

If we do hit it, it's going to be awesome.

You know, we're doing this not just for ourselves, but for jesse's family.

Rhenda's coming in, jesse's wife,

And we want to give her that gold that jesse's earned this season.

Ground is limited here.

We mined a good bit here in the first season,

We've been hammering it. So...

This is our last-ditch effort.

Two extra teams prospecting?

That's a win-win. I don't give a who finds it.

Clock's ticking.

We didn't just come here to strike out.

With five miles of lynx creek to prospect,

Team turin must find eight ounces a day.

To hit their target.

Yeah, boy, let's get it!

That's it, let's go!

We need one more cut to hit our gold!

Hopefully, we can find one with 31 ounces.

All I know is, it's time to get it.

Following kc's hunch,

He and jason head west to a spot downstream of the fain lake dam,

An area heavily mined by the old-timers,

But the site of recent monsoon flooding.

When you look down and see them big-ass boulders,

It justifies the pan, you know?

Yeah. Good stuff.

It sure looks good down here.

There's a lot of big rocks,

There's been a lot of high energy coming through.

Man, these are some big boulders.

And you know what they say, big boulders equal big gold.

Kc's theory?

Heavy rainfall and monsoons.

Caused the fain lake dam to breach.

The resulting flash floods.

Carried tons of gold-rich material.

Down the valley.

If he's right,

The boulder field could be hiding.

A high-grade cache of gold.

Dave thinks we're crazy.

For wanting to go up by the dam.

In this state, we have massive flash floods.

My though is, it's churned up all that stuff the dredge missed,

Deposited it down, and hopefully that works out.

Bottom line, we don't hit that,

Then coming out here was just a waste of time.

I really want to hit that million-dollar season.

Two miles east.

This actually looks like a pretty good spot, man,

Where the bend is and everything.

In the hope of uncovering a paystreak,

Chris and nathan prospect up a half-mile gully.

Next to jesse's cut,

Some of this season's most profitable lynx creek ground.

There's definitely been some erosion.

- Yeah. - Due to the water.

It's coming down,

This water is eroding and it's bringing gold with it.

So we're going to scratch below that sand and get under the gravel.

And see what we've got.

That one there is the very bottom.

After two hours of searching...

All right, nate. That's good.

Nathan and chris.

Pick what looks like ancient river gravels.

- There's only bed. - One last test, nate.

This the deepest stuff?

I feel like I up.

I don't want to go out empty-handed.

If this pan doesn't have...

Gets us gold in about 30, 40 colors,

I hope that dave and juan.

Or kc and jason found something.

Not one flake.

There's one little flake.

Just one flake, nate.