Gold Rush

Feeders coming on.

Narrator: On this "gold rush"...

It looks like the pay streak's running out.

Todd: Holy frick!

Everybody stop. We might have a fricking problem down here.

what is that?

Enough is enough.

Todd: 316 mining's deep in the red.

That's it? I can't keep doing this.

I'm pulling out.

Todd: We've been best friends for seven years.

Needs some work.

She's spinning out.

Holy .

You've got to be kidding me.

You spent a fortune on a wash plant,

and you can't even run the thing.

I'm annoyed.

Ness: It's that time of year

where parker becomes a different person.

And I'm left confused.

Leave me the alone.

Hate to say this, parker,

but I think this is a hoffman cleanup.

This doesn't look too good.

Everything's great.

It's like the garden of eden around here.

captions paid for by discovery communications

freddy, how's the sluice running?

It's looking good, todd.

We're making gold.

Know what?

The buckland's open for business.

Narrator: In oregon, after a disastrous

the hoffman crew has finally struck gold at the buckland.

Todd: This whole season's been

hopefully, it finishes up better than it started.

I have a pretty heavy weight on my shoulders right now.

But I feel like we're finally turning the corner.

These guys are my family.

I just want to get gold for these guys.

Last week, they took a vital step

towards todd's 5,000-ounce, $6 million goal --

a 52.6-ounce cleanup worth over $60,000

from just two days running.

We dug this huge hole.

We finally found the gold right over there,

right next to the dredge track.

We're gonna go get that gold there

and go right underneath that dredge.

Narrator: Two months ago,

todd leased the buckland claim from marvin wirth.

Turin: This is definitely dredg

wirth: The dredge ran basically the full length

of this spot right up till here.

But no one's been in here seriously since the '20s.

How do we know they didn't just pick it clean?

I mean, these old guys are pretty good.

I guess, to put it in a nutshell, todd,

the dredge didn't make it to the bottom.

There'll be gold at the bottom.

100 years ago, a dredge mined

a gold-rich pay streak on the buckland.

The pay streak was so rich, it produced 24,000 ounces,

worth $7 million at today's value.

Todd's been told there's a layer of main pay

at a depth the dredge couldn't get to.

But before they go under the old dredge path,

the men are mining a small pocket of side pay

they hit last week.

Pierce: There's a narrow strip of virgin pay.

And it's just outside the dredge track.

And that's what we're chasing.

The dredge came through here and just hit crazy gold.

So whatever they couldn't get,

we're hoping that it's just as rich.

Finally get some gold, finally get my mortgage covered.

Hiatt: Right now, it's looking good.

And hopefully, they just kind of keep going that way.

Todd, dave, you guys got a copy?

I need to see you guys down here in the cut.

Yeah, andy. Go ahead. What's up?

It looks like the pay streak's running out.

Oh, crap.

Holy frick.

There's your pay.

It just fricking disappeared.

Oh! No kidding.

It ends right about here.

Turin: You think?

Spinks: I think so.

Realistically, you probably got two feet of pay.

We just lost, probably, over 60% of what we had.

That's it. That's all we got.

From here up, it's just crap.

There's no gold in this.

I guarantee it.

Narrator: Andy has been excavating a

running along the wall of dredge tailings.

But it's dramatically reduced in size to a tiny deposit.

Turin: Dig overburden for three days.

And then haul pay for one day.

It's not worth it. Mnh-mnh.

Okay.

From now on, we need to focus on getting that main pay.

With the side pay all but disappeared,

it's time for the hoffmans to implement the master plan.

Todd: If we can get into that bottom

I think we're gonna turn this thing around.

I really do.

Narrator: Last week, tony beets hauled in

a monster 532 ounces of gold,

worth over $600,000,

putting him three quarters of the way

to hitting his 2,000-ounce, $2.4 million goal.

Now, after his biggest-ever weigh-in,

he's smelting $1.25 million worth.

Last week, tony's tugboat,

kid commando, was ruled unseaworthy,

leaving his new dredge

stranded 100 miles upriver at thistle creek.

But now he can afford to fix the problem.

The latest addition to tony's viking fleet --

a twin-engine, 60-foot-long power barge.

no, I'm a young whippersnapper.

Needs some work.

You might want to change the order of that,

'cause if you weld it after you paint it,

you're gonna have to paint it again.

I know.

Narrator: The barge has been sitting I

and it's never been deployed.

The 60,000-pound colossus...

...Is split in three giant sections.

Once the convoy, with its 15,000-pound cargo,

leaves the highway,

it faces a 5-mile climb to paradise hill.

Mike: She's spinning out!

Can't hold it. She's spinning back down.

Once they start spinning, then I lose traction.

And once I lose traction,

I'm just gonna keep spinning and digging a hole.

Narrator: Less than a mile from paradise hill,

mike beets' truck has spun out on a 30% gradient.

the solution -- tony's military eight-wheel drive,

off-road truck, the oshkosh.

That, I do.

I like it when things go nice.

Ness: We're already starting so late.

I need to get going down here.

Narrator: It's a big day

for parker schnabel's foreman, rick ness.

Lost crew for a while.

Thought it was dead for a while.

Finally got to start back up at indian river.

Three weeks ago, parker commandeered

the indian river rock trucks, leaving rick's claim idle.

Now parker's returned them.

And rick can finish what he started --

produce 1,000 ounces from their second mine

towards parker's 4,000-ounce, $4.8 million goal.

I think we still might have enough time in the season

to pull 1,000 ounces out of indian river.

But we're -- we're really gonna be up against it.

Five miles east, at scribner creek,

parker is under pressure.

Halfway through the season,

he's only a quarter way to his goal.

You've got to be kidding me.

Oh, who designed this joke?

Cut the power.

And now he's got a problem with his wash plant.

disgusting. This is

and this...

Rocks are falling into the riffles,

preventing the gold from settling into the miners moss.

The amount of boulders in here...

You spend a fortune on a wash plant,

and you can't even run the thing

without getting buried.

It'll be a wonder if there's any gold in here

if no dirt's making it down in the sluice box.

Leave me the alone.

At indian river, rick and brennan are busy

trying to get their cut down to pay dirt.

I'm going to do my damnedest to make this a success.

But, you know, it's --

it's just becoming harder and harder as we lose time.

Ruault: I know it means a lot for rick

to succeed down here in indian river.

But I know that he really wants to make a go of it

and prove to parker, like, you know,

"I can do this on my own."

parker: I'm annoyed.

I don't understand

why people don't look at the sluice runs.

And they see rocks half the size of your fist

rolling down them and realize there's a problem.

runs, right? Look at the

so I need you to deal with it.