Gold Rush

Narrator: On this "gold rush,"

The most successful season of gold mining...

Yeah! My boy!

...Comes to a close.

Hell yeah, we had a great season.

Narrator: For the first time,

The miners reveal shocking, never-before-seen moments.

I don't think I'd ever want to be a miner.

Narrator: Deep, dark secrets...

...They never wanted shown.

We were gonna get 10% of the gold.

Narrator: After months on the claims, the truth finally comes out.

Brandon started off at our site.

He fired me.

When I tell you to leave me alone...

Nobody treats me like that.

Narrator: ...Like parker's bromance with derek.

sleepyhead.

-Is that what's gonna be shown? -Yeah.

Narrator: ...That lead to a full-scale war.

I just wanted to punch him in the face

Just looking at the guy.

The crew didn't like me at all, but parker sure did.

Narrator: And a phenomenal side of todd hoffman...

Ready to rock?

Narrator: ...That he's always kept under wraps.

¶ it's the world I know ¶

Dude, you're a miner.

What are you doing making a song?

Narrator: And finally, a sneak peek

Of big, bold gold-mining plans for next season.

Tony's ambition to ship a second dredge

Down the mighty yukon river.

Parker's ongoing crew crisis.

I think there's some people that aren't gonna come back.

I've already got some e-mails from some of his employees

From this year.

Narrator: And todd once again

Uproots his operation to find life-changing gold.

There is a possibility of finding a world-class nugget.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Narrator: Before this mining season even began,

Three generations of hoffmans set off on a quest

For the legendary el dorado gold.

We went up there to el dorado,

Met peter in the snow.

Sounds like a deal, man. Thanks.

Peter: Right on.

What you guys didn't see

Is that after I made the deal with peter,

We actually stayed up there for several days.

And we prospected in the snow.

If we found the source of the el dorado gold,

There's going to be billions of dollars.

Oh, my gosh.

Todd: We're up on el dorado creek,

One of the richest creeks

Ever found in the history of mankind.

There was snow on the ground.

And -- and that's not gonna stop us.

Hey, get up here.

Todd: The real gold, the real gem,

Is the excitement to be on a treasure hunt

With my son and my father.

So here we are.

It's frozen. The creek's frozen.

We got to find some pay dirt.

Pretty much, we were being idiots.

'cause, uh, it's the wrong time to be doing this kind of stuff.

You're doing good, kid.

This is kind of my grandpa's little adventure and his idea.

And somehow, they dragged me up here...

...Just to shovel all the buckets for 'em

And pretty much do all the manual work.

I don't think I'd ever want to be a miner.

'cause, I mean, it's really hard to even make money mining.

Jack: You hit your noggin on that

And you'll be eating peaches and pears.

Todd: So you got an old guy with a bad back,

You got a little smart-aleck kid,

You got the fat dad,

Sleeping in this cabin.

How'd you guys sleep?

Jack: My back feels like a chipmunk chewed on it.

Hunter: It seems like it sucks really bad.

No cell service, and it was just us three in the cabin.

And we haven't done that in a while.

And then it ended up being really fun.

2 inches per foot, hunter, at least.

Jack: Actually, he's got it pretty well there.

First scoop of the season.

We're ahead of everybody sluicing.

Narrator: After two frigid days

Of prospecting, jack's dream

Of mining el dorado came down to just one pan.

Todd: I saw some gold.

Just swirl her around, and you'll see it.

Hunter: There is color in here.

Boom. Boom. Look at that.

-Yeah. -Color, color, color.

I mean, that's not bad.

I don't have a whole lot of time left.

You know?

I don't want to pass an opportunity like this.

I know you do, dad.

I really do.

I think there's enough gold here where,

If we bring freddy dodge in... -Yeah.

-...We bring in an excavator... -Yeah.

And, uh, and do a little bit more serious testing

When the snow's gone.

Narrator: The hoffmans were hooked.

But three months later when they finally returned...

...Jack's dream of el dorado gold

Didn't pan out.

Nothing.

No gold here.

Todd: We had a failure.

And that was, uh, el dorado.

You know, sometimes you're right, sometimes you're wrong.

This time, I was wrong.

It kind of sucked.

I've had enough. I'm just going home.

I don't know if this is a firing or a quitting.

Narrator: At the beginning of the mining season,

Parker had to rebuild his crew from the ground up.

How you doing?

But of the 21 individuals he hired,

Only 11 made it to the bitter end.

What never made the show is

That a key member of the hoffman crew

Was originally hired and then fired by parker.

You must be brandon!

I am, yeah!

How's it going?

Good. Good to meet you.

You're already ready to go to work?

-Oh, yeah. -Geez.

Unsworth: Met parker.

He, uh, asked me to come down and fix up the roads.

It's been a long, hard winter.

And, uh, these roads are, uh,

I'm really excited.

I've never, uh, worked on a gold mine before.

At the end of the day, you actually get to see some gold

In the bucket, which is nice.

I had an issue with brandon,

Because I told him that the job

He was applying for was an excavator operator position.

And he showed up

And was not an excavator operator.

So I'm excited to, uh, try out his, uh,

Volvo 700 excavator.

It's probably the least that I have, uh,

Least amount of experience I have on anything.

Ness: It's always tough starting a season off

With guys who don't know what they're doing.

It puts more stress on, uh, on everybody else.

Parker: I don't have time to teach people how to do a job.

He asked to be in a dozer or a loader

Or a bunch of other things.

And I said, "well, brandon, that's the job.

That's the job you applied for.

It was an excavator operator position.

I'm done with this

Narrator: After just five days...

Parker: Leave me alone.

Narrator: ...Brandon was gone.

When I tell you to leave me alone,

You leave me the alone. All right?

Nobody treats me like that or anybody like that.

I'm not gonna put up with it.

You know, at the end of the day, I expect, uh, I expect respect.

And...Yeah, you know, he fired me.

But I'm hoping for the best. You know?

I'm not gonna put up with that

And neither should anybody else.

So that's it.

What am I gonna do now?

Turin: I met brandon in town.

And I met a young man that was a little bit, uh,

He was actually a little bit angry.

Unsworth: To think that you can talk

To another human being like that...

-Yeah. -You know?

And get away with it. And that's the thing.

He thinks he can get away with it 'cause, you know,

He's some klondike king because of the show.

Like, you're not. You're a human being.

And you're lucky your head's on your shoulders still.

But I don't think parker knows brandon used to play hockey.

And he'd been in a lot of fights.

And he was at the edge of beating parker up.

This is the new guy, brandon. This is kevin.

-Hey, brandon. -Pleased to meet you.

-This is randy. -Nice to meet you.

Hey, get your gloves on. Grab a sledgehammer.

And knock this pin out.

Sounds good.

Unsworth: Yeah!