Bering Sea Gold

Narrator: Nome, alaska...

♪♪

Come by daddy on this side.

...Late June brings father's day weekend.

Steve: Just a fact of life in nome, alaska.

Gold mining is the family farm of the north.

Narrator: For much of the dredging fleet...

Hey, dad, you're still too far away. I miss you.

Narrator: ...Gold has always been a family business.

Okay, I love you. Bye.

Narrator: For one mining family...

Got three pomrenke dads here in nome.

My dad's dad's here, my dad's here, and I'm here.

Narrator: ...This weekend will bring fathers and sons...

One hell of a road rebuild here, dad.

...A little closer together.

For another...

Come on, you fat

Okay, I'll get out.

...Not so much.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

30 miles east of nome...

♪♪

...On the reaper...

We're not here for gold.

We're here for large amounts of gold.

Right, eh?

Right, kris.

...With $10,000 invested on their very own claims

Off the solomon river...

We can make a million dollars.

That's what I'm here for.

Narrator: ...For the fightin' kellys, it's do or die.

I really need to lead my family to gold.

We're not making any money.

If we keep up at the rate we're going,

We're gonna be out of the mining season completely.

Today, the plan is to punch 1,000 holes

And hope to god we reach the cobble somewhere.

Like, I know there's a lot of gold on this claim. I know it.

Narrator: This summer...

These claims right here are the new reaper claims,

Owned by the kellys.

-Let's go for it. -Yeah!

Narrator: ...After his dad lured him back

With the promise of untouched riches...

Come on, you sandbar piece of

...All kris has found so far...

...Has been headaches.

My dad's a we all know that.

Kris: Turns out we weren't even working our claim.

We were working other people's claims.

That was extremely embarrassing.

When you claim jump, you do that to get money easy.

You know, it's more of a cash and dash.

You fly in, you get the money, you get the out.

You're not spending hard work trying to prospect sand.

Narrator: Now...

All right, anchor away?

Yeah.

Narrator: ...With one last shot to hit it big,

Kris is looking to lead his dad and brother to glory.

Anchor away.

The first year when your dad breaks up with your mom

And starts a new family,

There's always some kind of anger

Towards the whole situation.

Brad: Start here, and then who knows where we'll end up?

Whatever kris the diver says --

Super kris, as he likes to be called.

Kris: We really need to start to turn this around.

Everybody needs to get together.

We need to all hug it out.

And we need to make some money as a family.

I need this season to work for me right now.

Brad: We got to go, go, go.

How's your air pressure?

Kris: It's okay.

How's the ground look?

Uh, the ground looks like all sand.

Going to work.

Hey, there's rocks in this sand.

No gold, though.

No gold so far.

Well, dude, it looks like a lot of sand.

I'm already at 2 feet, nothing but sand.

Okay, I've got to make the hole a little wider.

I've got to find how deep it is.

This is stupid, actually.

Yeah, so far, it doesn't look like there's a bottom in sight.

We have no cobble at all, and I'm at 3 feet already.

Do you think I should try to keep going

And hope I find a bottom?

Why don't you come back to the boat, hook up the nozzle?

Narrator: Lacking the horsepower to chew through the sand,

The kellys' only hope...

Keep going that way.

...Is that somewhere on their claims lies gold-rich cobble.

Right here, eh?

♪♪

Kris: What the

It looks like a load of sand.

What was that?

It turns out we're on sand.

-What? -No

We're on sand.

Narrator: The kellys aren't the only family business

Struggling to find gold.

38 miles to the west,

On the tomcod claim...

Just sand over dirt -- not good.

...Just 111 ounces away from fulfilling

His promise to dad and heading for the bluff...

Shawn: Not good.

Not good, not good, not good.

Narrator: ...Shawn pomrenke is sifting through scraps...

Shawn: We're back to hunting, trying to figure out

Where we've been and where we're going.

A lot of marks.

We've been doing a lot of mining in the area.

We've been just digging this mediocre crap.

Yeah, I mean, that seems to be that's all that's left here.

Narrator: In need of a new hot spot

To support the father-son operation...

I don't know what dad's talking about.

I'm going to bluff whether he likes it or not.

Narrator: ...Shawn and his old man aren't exactly feeling the love.

The tomcod's drying up. I knew it was coming.

I kept warning dad.

And I'm telling dad, "yeah, hey,

You know, we got to do something."

I wish dad would just let up and trust me.

Narrator: For years...

I'm tired of people talking

About me to other people.

Because you give us so much ammunition!

...Shawn and his dad, steve, have battled to work together.

Don't need you to run the christine rose.

You think we need you that bad?

-You're a -well...

You're a

Narrator: But there's one thing

That's always managed to smooth the way.

181 ounces.

We needed a bigger jar, huh?

Now, with his dad

Firmly against the plan to head for the bluff...

Kris: Maybe I'll have to remind the old man

What father's day is all about --

Getting a bunch of gold so he'll shut up.

Narrator: ...Shawn's looking to deliver another golden bribe.

Dad's been giving me a hard time about going to the bluff.

I've been giving him a hard time about inland mining.

So I figured I'd bring him a little father's day gift

Just so he knows we're doing our job out there.

Making a bunch of gold so we can keep everybody

In the family in the gold mining business.

The pomrenke legacy's a big deal to me --

To have my son, dylan,

Look forward to being able to possibly hold everything

That I've built.

It makes me proud that I can do that.

Narrator: As for that pomrenke legacy...

Kris: Derek stole my boy from me.

He's got dylan working for him.

Narrator: ...Just a few hundred yards away...

All anchored up.

Everything looks good.

Time to get in the water, I guess.

Narrator: ...Rookie skipper derek mclarty

Has nome's newest mega dredge ready for action.

The pressure of being the captain versus

Just a crew member is completely different.

I mean, now, everything's in your lap.

I put everything I had into this boat,

And this boat has to pay me back.

I mean, if this boat doesn't pay me back,

Then what am I doing?

Narrator: Headed for the nozzle with him...

You got your diving gear ready to go?

Perfect.

...First-time diver and heir

To the pomrenke throne, 17-year-old dylan.

Dylan brings to the table what a lot of people don't have,

And that's lineage.

His dad, his grandpa -- I mean, he's been immersed

In gold mining since he was born.

You've got to graduate.

I'll go in the water first.

I'll go down. You'll follow me down.

We'll get her all figured out.

Dylan: My dad wants me to go work

For my grandpa in the inland mining.

But derek mclarty asked me

If I wanted to come work for him.

And I said, "how much would you pay me?"

He said $30, and I went and worked for derek.

As long as he's safe, and he learns something,

You know, more power to him

'cause it is hard working with family.