Bering Sea Gold

Shawn: Gold mining every day is a gamble.

We've spent $1 million this season.

Steve: You have to gamble, go for that wanderlust,

That exceptional treasure-hunting day

When you hit the mother lode.

Emily: I'm gonna keep on doing

What I believe is best for success.

And I don't have any intentions of failing.

Zeke: Well, once you're down there and you see the gold down there,

The possibilities are unlimited.

Derek: If I can't make this happen, I don't sink my battleship,

I sink everyone.

Kris: You can fail a million times.

You only need to make it really one time big.

Just keep trying until I make it.

Narrator: Nome, alaska.

Emily: All of our lines are startin' to freeze.

The harbor is getting more solid every day.

Narrator: The freezing of the harbor means the end

Of the dredging season is close at hand.

The freeze has already come.

For much of the fleet, a summer of gambling...

Better know what you're doin'. Better be prepared

To lose all the money that you brought up here.

Narrator: ...Has come down to one final hail mary.

To get out there and to try to make as much gold as we can

Before we're frozen.

Narrator: In a matter of just hours, some will come up blank.

We're all burnt out, work around the clock

And get as much gold in this box

As we possibly can before that harbor says,

"you're done."

Narrator: But one will hit

The biggest...

Jackpot...

Ever.

Nice!

Captions paid for by discovery communications

Narrator: Nowhere is winter more apparent...

Yeah-huh!

Good pay dirt. There's lots of it.

...Than just below anvil mountain

At the pomrenke inland mine.

We got termination dust today,

End of the season dust.

Look at the windshield on the ford.

It looks like mother nature's tryin' to thrash us out of --

Out of business here.

The dirt's got some big rocks in it.

It's got the right color. It's got the right texture.

It's good pay dirt. I know it's good pay dirt.

Narrator: With the end of the season creeping up fast...

Steve: It's 24 hours a day now.

Twenty-four hours a day we try to keep this thing running.

...Sixty-three-year-old steve pomrenke

Is grinding towards a golden finish.

Steve: It's late in the season.

Well, we spent a million gettin' this up and runnin'.

But now, we're gettin' our money back here.

Might not get it all back this year.

But we're gonna give it a damn good try.

Narrator: A year and a half ago...

Are you in on the inland mining or out?

...Steve rolled the dice on one last shot

At an inland mining operation.

The dozer cost me $125,000 right off the bat.

Narrator: After spending every cent of the company profits...

I appreciate you guys all showin' up

For the ground-breaking ceremony here

For our new inland mining operation.

...And duking it out with his flesh and blood...

I don't like fightin' with you.

I don't wanna fight with you, either.

...His dream...

-One seventy-six. -Yeah!

...Became reality.

-That's a big pile of gold. -Yeah.

Narrator: Now... I need about $17 in each bucket

To make me happy.

Twenty bucks a bucket would be happy -- make me happy.

Narrator: ...He's sitting just 324 ounces

Away from his season one goal.

Well, I started out with saying how we want 500 ounces.

So that's -- I guess I'm gonna have to go for that.

I'm completely tired, and I --

I can take a week off and go to cancun right now.

You wouldn't have to ask me twice.

Narrator: Steve isn't the only pomrenke gambling big.

One hundred miles to the east...

Shawn: Yeah, I been grindin' 16, 18-hour days.

Narrator: Steve's son, shawn,

Has been prospecting for nearly a solid week.

I was hopin' to come down here and hit it big,

But doesn't look like it's gonna happen.

Narrator: But unfortunately for mr. Gold...

I don't even know if it's enough gold

To even warrant turnin' the wash plant on.

...The massive claim is proving elusive.

I mean, maybe it's here somewhere.

But this is a big, big area.

And I could be, like, 10 feet

Away from it here, 10 feet away from it there.

This is where we were at this winter.

We were seein' a little bit of gold.

But I can't seem to zone in on it.

Wish I would've had a lot more time.

But dad drug his feet so long on the inland mining

It cost me a lot of precious time

To be able to prospect and actually find the gold.

Narrator: With the temperature dropping by the day...

-Nothin'. -Nothin'.

...The clock has run out on shawn's gamble at the bluff.

Dude, I think -- I think we call it.

It's gettin' . It's gettin' cold.

-Yeah. -The end is near.

Since bluff was a bust, I have to go back to the tomcot

And make up for that lost time and lost money, lost revenue.

Let's go back and make some gold before the season's over.

That's what we need to do. Let's do it.

Old man's gonna be pissed.

Get the hell outta here.

The bluff won this -- this go-around,

But I think I'll be back.

Narrator: While shawn races to town

Looking for one last run,

70 miles to the west,

Just off the solomon river...

We could be going getting easy gold today.

But instead, we're going off on another adventure.

Narrator: Unwilling to take "no gold" for an answer...

I know we're gonna make a million bucks off of this.

...The fightin' kellys are gearing up

For one last shot at glory.

We got to push -- push it to the limit today.

This time, packing a secret weapon.

What's that c.O.G.?

Oh, .

Nobody knows how to read that thing?

So I bought this thousand dollar side radar gps.

I should be able to find cobble in our claims

And actually see if our claims are worth the millions

Of dollars that I think's that's there.

Just be quiet. I know what I'm doin'.

We haven't really figured out how to work it that well.

But, you know, I

Play video games almost for a living.

You know, I'm great at 'em.

This is what's gonna turn around our system right here.

Narrator: Four months ago...

All the way down as far as you can see is our claim.

...The kelly boys sunk $10,000 on these unexplored claims

With dreams of striking it rich.

But instead of gold-rich cobble, they hit barren sand.

- -come on you fat .

And, eventually, each other. Now...

So, where I kinda want to go is to this point right here.

...With their meager winnings tied up in their new scanner...

We might come across a 500-ounce pocket

Is really what I'm hoping to find.

...The kellys are betting the last of their chips

That this time solomon pays off big.

If we don't make this next spot work,

That's it for us.

I'd be stuck working on someone else's boat

Because we don't have enough money

To make it through the winter.

Kris: We're here.

There it is.

Like, look at all this looks rough in here.

-Look at this. -Yeah.

No, looks very rough, you know.

Some kind of pixels.

Throw an anchor out and see what's underneath us here.

Anchor, andy.

See how it's, like, bumping? It's lots of bumps.

Lots of bumps.

Yeah, no, there's somethin' very bumpy underneath there.

Okay, we're at the 14-foot...

Bought a thousand-dollar machine

And I'm still out here doin' the anchor system.

-Are we on cobble? -Yeah.

-Yeah, we're on cobble. -That's cobble!

I told you my machine worked!

You okay? You okay? Calm down.

Calm down. You might fall off.

It's cobble .

-It's cobble. -Yeah.

-I heard it over there. -Give me some love.

Narrator: After finally locating a spot with cobble,

There's just one thing left to do.

Or else this is all for nothin'.

Okay, we're ready to go.

This is it. Last chance.

I really need to lead my family to gold.

If it doesn't work, I'm gonna hear this for,

Like, the rest of my life.

I'm gonna hear about this

At christmas 10 years down the road

About how I ruined everything.

Ready?