Gold Rush

Man: You'd better get the down here.

It's not looking good.

Narrator: On this "gold rush"...

There's nothing to even say about this

'cause of how big of a us it is.

Parker is just too moody. I can't read him.

Parker: Let's see what old sluicifer done.

There's 50.

It's pretty obvious in these two cleanups

that this is gonna be a pretty good fight till the end.

Looks like it's in pieces.

This thing is heavy.

Kevin!

Today will be the moment of truth

when we look in that box.

Whoo-hoo!

I really believe that colorado gold

is gonna save our season.

Shut it down!

Todd: It's weird seeing all this gold

and not having the guys with us.

Breaks my heart.

You know why I'm calling.

captions paid for by discovery communications

the boundary cut extension's just been

a real disappointment all around.

Narrator: This season, parker has set a mammoth target --

to mine 4,000 ounces of gold worth $4.8 million.

He's running two claims.

Rick must sluice 1,000 ounces from indian river

while parker is aiming for 3,000 ounces

from his boundary cut extension at scribner creek.

But the cut is currently delivering

only half the gold he needs.

Parker: You just keep putting more money and it's been,

uh, been really tough run.

Yeah, go ahead.

damn it.

That is monumental up.

What'd you do?

Brisebois: Backed in a little

and then it was just a little too far.

Next thing you know, it sunk.

You couldn't walk across that, like,

with your legs let alone a excavator.

100% my fault.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that.

So are you gonna fire me over this?

Uh, I haven't decided yet.

It really wasn't that bad when I got in there.

There's nothing to even say about this

'cause of how big of a up it is.

-I agree. -Yeah, so just --

let's just keep our mouth shut.

The swamp part is the no-go zone.

I didn't really tell them that before they set out out here,

but, uh,

I thought it was pretty self-explanatory.

It's a swamp.

Nice, huh?

Man: No, not good at all.

My concern is it's a lot of

in the water and if it don't start,

we're really in trouble then.

You know, if it won't start,

it's definitely not coming out of there.

Narrator: The 52-ton excavator has been in the swamp,

submerged up to its engine housing, for over an hour.

Parker: Mitch, brennan, grab a couple hoes

and help pull me out of here.

You ready?

It just died.

Oh, this is gonna be bad.

Blaschke: Got your safety on!

There you go. We can get it.

Ruault: Come on.

it's really leaning on this corner.

Lean over this way.

Aw, man. It's really leaning now.

stop.

Geez

well, I pulled out a lot of stuck machines

in the mud, but not this bad.

It's suctioned in to the bottom.

It's all that mud. It's like quicksand.

So you'll sink instantly.

This isn't working.

There's so much mud in here.

We just got to get the mud out so we can break the suction.

It's gonna be messy.

Maybe we can just pull out some of this soft stuff here.

And then we kind of work this down a little bit.

Narrator: Mitch and brennan must

dig a hole beside the stranded excavator

to allow air between the thick mud and the machine.

Nice mud.

We got to do this as fast as we can here

'cause, uh, the machine's sinking as we speak.

It's moving. -Come on. Go, go, go.

Get in it, parker.

Narrator: With the suction broken,

mitch and brennan have one more shot

at pulling the excavator free.

Parker: Come on, baby.

-Come on. -Come on.

Come on.

Come on.

I should be able to make it.

Spin it.

I should be able to get out of here.

Whoo!

Slick rick.

Did it.

-I'm glad that worked. -Yeah.

Blaschke: No damage other than a door, it looks like.

So, uh, we got really lucky.

We could've lost that whole machine.

It can be scrap metal.

So glad it came out as good as it did.

-Whoo. -Whoo.

That's awesome.

Narrator: The five remaining members of the hoffman crew

are at the fairplay mine in colorado.

Freddy threw us a lifeline, went out on a limb.

Narrator: It's todd's last chance t

todd: But we ain't out of the woods yet.

Let's just hope that there's some damn gold with this dirt.

Today will be the moment of truth

when we look in that box.

Narrator: Freddy is managing his plant, rusty red.

Hunter bails pay dirt from the stockpile.

Jack feeds the hopper.

And jim thurber is on tailings.

Thurber: Yeah, we definitely miss everybody.

We're just a band of brothers.

And, uh, half of 'em aren't here.

They need to be here.

That's all there is to it.

Narrator: After six weeks with no paycheck,

the rest of the crew quit to find other work.

Todd: Here we are three days in.

We got to get gold in the box.

Shut her down, todd.

See what the box looks like.

Hey, guys. You ought to see this.

Whoo.

Look at that crap, buddy.

Wow.

Todd: That's what we were going for all summer.

It's weird seeing all this gold

and not having the guys with us.

Breaks my heart.

All right, we got hammers?

Let's pull 'em.

Awesome.

Narrator: Freddy found this claim

to help todd pay back the rest of his crew.

It's freddy's wash plant and todd's equipment.

But neither will be taking a cent

until they pay the missing crew members

the money they're owed in lost wages.

Freddy: All I really want to do

is get gold in the guys' pockets.

Todd: You're right.

I really don't care if I lose money.

This whole thing, I'm taking it as my fault.

I just want to get these guys

the gold that they need to make it through the winter.

Thurber: Okay.

Scoop number one, here we go.

Jack: Yeah, that doesn't look all that bad.

Yeah, there's a lot of gold on the table.

That's 1/2 inch deep.

Todd: What do we got?

Thurber: Well, we haven't weighed it up yet.

Oh, man. That looks good.

Narrator: For fairplay to be worth mining,

todd needs this cleanup to deliver around 40 ounces.

10, 15, 20, 25, 35...

Jack: 40.

Come on, 50.

45.

40...

49.9.

Might as well call it 50.

Whoo.

Freddy: If you add my 19 to that, todd,

we've got almost 69 ounces of gold from fairplay already.

Narrator: 69 ounces is worth $80,000.

But after running costs,

it will leave todd around $20,000

towards the $150,000 he owes his crew.

Todd: Good gold.

Well, it looks good, but it's not enough.

Hunter: If we're gonna get gold to the guys,

we're gonna need their help.

You know, just us, we're not gonna be able

to get 'em anything.

Hunter's right. We ain't gonna accomplish

what we really need to do without more people.