04x20 - Unearthed

[bunniefuu]

Narrator: as yet another
expl*sive season of "gold rush"

Comes to a close...

[ Crash ]

Fred:
yo, get out of the way!

...miners from three claims
across two continents...

Not in kansas anymore.

...sit in the hot seat.
Let's do this.

I have such a personal problem
with this.

I'm sick of this
[bleep] question.

Can we button off
for a sec?

For the first time this season,
they reveal their secrets...

I wanted to walk.

...their frustrations...

There could still be

Millions of dollars
of gold down there.

...and they drop bombshells.

People broke into his camp
and robbed him.

They got m*rder*d.

In never-before-seen footage,

The miners walk us through
what didn't make the show.

You're fired.

Todd hoffman defends
his disastrous season.

You're freaking
sitting at home

And you're
an armchair quarterback.

But we reveal that his crew

Could have actually avoided
their jungle debacle...

Turin:
you are freaking kidding me!

...if they had not turned their
back on hot yukon ground...

Now, that's what I call
a big nugget.

...a claim we now know

Was well worth freddy dodge
leaving the jungle for.

Freddy: holy cow!

I told todd
there was gonna be big gold.

"Dakota" fred makes
a shocking announcement.

All season, he faced
losing his wife.

We thought
that she was gonna die.

And parker lets it slip
that his dream of 1,000 ounces

Almost died before
his big season even began.

I don't think
anybody realizes

How close I was
to being shut down.

And finally, the miners
give us a sneak peek

Of their grand plans
for next season.

We need better ground.

I'm gonna mine a waterfall!

I got nothing.

I will continue
to gold mine.

I don't know if it's gonna be
with the hoffmans.

-- Captions by vita c --
www.vitac.com

Captions paid for by
discovery communications

Narrator:
after finally achieving

A successful season
in north america,

Todd hoffman made
the controversial decision

To leave behind ground
that produced 803 ounces.

We did get $1.2 million,
which is fine,

But we want
a life-changing experience.

Narrator: todd's right-hand man,
dave, had his doubts.

Todd was willing to take
that chance, take that risk.

Todd:
you're gonna kick some a*s.

Me personally? I would have
stayed in the klondike.

Narrator: but what didn't make
"gold rush" this season

Is that before
even heading to guyana,

The hoffman crew
checked out a hot tip

On a phenomenal claim
in the yukon.

Turin:
you sure this is it, dude?

Freddy:
doesn't look like a road to me,
but this has got to be it.

Oh, man!
There goes our paint job.

You got your chainsaw, dave?

Turin: yep.

The more of an ordeal it is
to get to the gold,

The better chance there's
gonna be good gold left there.

Man: why?

Because people are lazy.

Oh!

Narrator:
freddy dodge tests a sample pan
straight out of the creek.

Freddy: five colors.

Todd:
did I call that or what?

There's gold here, fred.

But this claim
has a reputation

For a lot more
than just fine gold.

Guys, this is
my brother, derek.

Hey, derek!

Derek: how you doing?
I'm todd.

How we doing?

So, you guys are after
some big nuggets, huh?

Yeah, we are.

We'd like to see
some coarse gold.

This creek here is known
as big bullion creek.

An old prospector
used to dig shafts here,

And he found
some pretty good gold,

And then when
I did a test bit --

Like, how big?
How big?

Yeah.

Oh, about that big.

Are you
freaking kidding me?

Now, that's what I call
a big nugget.

Narrator:
at just under six ounces,

This one nugget
is worth around $8,000.

In the three years that we had
mined, it was all fine gold.

To see those big nuggets,

It really does get you kind of
charged up and fired up.

Tell me there's
more of these here.

There's plenty --
plenty more.

You know what?

If you've got the ability

To get this gold
out of the ground,

There's no difference in
that gold being in the ground

As the money
being in a bank account.

Narrator: but todd decided
to turn his back

On the huge nuggets
from carmacks

To pursue a high-risk,
high-reward proposition.

Todd:
I liked the carmacks claim.
I think it's got gold.

But I'm looking for
something big.

So, I went to guyana
to mine gold,

But I knew that diamonds
were going to be there,

And I knew that the potential
was huge for diamonds.

I'm swinging for the fences,

And I'm gonna knock it
the frick out of the park.

Narrator: at just 18 years old,
parker schnabel left his home,

His family,
and his beloved grandpa

To strike it rich
in the klondike.

Bye, grandpa.

I'll come and see you.

I'll look forward to it.

Parker: to me,
gold mining is with him.

To be honest,
I probably wouldn't

Have gone up to the klondike
if I didn't have his blessing.

Narrator:
but what parker didn't reveal
is just how concerned he was

About his grandpa's
failing health.

Parker: the truth is,
you know, he has cancer,

And it started getting
pretty aggressive.

And they started
having to, you know,

Get more aggressive
with the treatments.

And at 93, that's,
you know, no small deal.

At my age,
the doctors give me a chance,

On a ladder of 1 to 10,
way down at the bottom.

You know, less than one,
some of them.

Parker:
not being there to just spend
some time with him was tough.

You know,
there were several times

That I thought that I wouldn't
see him when I got back.

Narrator: with one last chance
to impress his grandpa,

Parker set a massive goal --

Four times the amount of gold
he got the previous season.

That 800-ounce number, I don't
really know what inspired it.

Narrator: but what didn't
make the cut this season

Was that after just one week
in the klondike,

Tony beets
threw parker a curveball

That nearly finished his season
before it started.

I was just starting to wrap
my head around being up there,

And tony just has something

Thrown in my contract
last minute

That requires me
to get a $600,000 bond.

Narrator: without a $600,000
insurance bond in place,

Parker and his crew would not be
allowed to mine scribner creek.

And it just shows
a lack of faith, you know?

And that bums me out.

If we don't have something
in place tomorrow morning,

We're not running.

I don't think anybody realizes

How close I was
to being shut down.

I don't even get approved
for a credit card,

So I didn't know what to do.

Narrator:
there was only one place

Parker could turn
to keep his season alive.

Yeah, hey, mom.

Yeah, is dad around?

At the last minute, his parents
came through for him.

Sometimes the paperwork stuff
is just as important,

And right now it's
more important, you know?

Narrator: but it was
a bitter pill to swallow.

I felt like
I wasn't being taken seriously.

I've got to play by his rules,

But that still doesn't mean
it was easy for me.

If I want the ground, I've
got to jump through the hoops.

One thing that I had prided
myself on going up there

Was doing it on my own,

And that's the thing
that hurt me the most about it,

Was that my only option
was to go back to my dad.

And I'm still
upset about that, honestly.

Narrator:
before this season started,

Dustin was set to mine
in the mountains of cahoon,

Ground he felt promised
huge amounts of gold.

Dustin, there's
where we're headed.

He was gonna do porcupine,
I was gonna do cahoon,

And that was it.

There's some gold right there.

Dustin: look at that!
Wow!

That's not what happened.
Fred just put the brakes on me.

We're gonna get some gold
in the bank

Before we go on a goose chase
up at cahoon creek.

Dustin:
he didn't want me up there,
and I don't even know why.

We still haven't
talked about it.

Narrator: fred didn't follow
through on his cahoon promise

Because he had a bureaucratic
nightmare on his hands.

Fred: cahoon creek cannot
be mined without a permit.

We did file
our paperwork for it.

It got delayed and delayed.

We finally tracked down
where it was.

Fred: way back
in february or march,

I discussed this at length
with the federal people.

Dustin: yeah?

Well, now they're
getting 'round to doing it,

Months and months
and months later.

Narrator:
dustin still suspects fred was
trying to derail the project.

Just seemed weird to me
that he just wouldn't go at it.

If it was something
you wanted to go after,

You bug somebody,
you check into it or something,

And here, three months later,
he's still going,

"Well, they haven't
called me yet."

Yeah, that's just crazy.

I got pretty pissed off
about it.

Narrator:
but fred had another reason
he needed dustin in porcupine.

He was secretly dealing with
a life-and-death situation

With his wife back home
in north dakota.

At any time this summer,

I expected to get a phone call
to attend a funeral.

I was trying to keep him around

In case I did have to
just run off

And go attend to business
back at home.

Narrator:
just two months into the season,

Fred got the call
he was dreading.

My wife is in the hospital
right this minute.

She's got some pretty severe
medical problems.

Before I left, I was not sure
that she would last

The whole year
or the whole season.

There was no doubt at one point

That we thought
that she was gonna die.

Narrator:
when he called his wife,

Fred asked the crew
not to record the conversation.

Fred: I ask her if she wanted me
to come home.

And she said,
"no, what are you gonna do?

Come up here and hold my hand?"

She says, "I got kids and
grandkids to do that right now."

She's still very,
very, very weak.

But she's...

She's holding her own right now.

Narrator:
coming up, the hoffmans'
troubled season in the jungle...

[ Groans ]

...takes a dramatic turn

When they come close
to a brutal k*lling.

They got m*rder*d.

Makes you really start
thinking about

What the hell you're doing
in the jungle.

We're not leaving this jungle

Without a pile of gold
and a pile of freaking diamonds.

Narrator:
todd hoffman is a leader of men.

It does no [bleep] good to stand
up there and do nothing.

I understand that.

But not everyone appreciates
his management style.

Boss doesn't listen to
anybody but himself.

[ Cracking ]

It's just stupid,
irrational thinking

By supposedly
one of our leaders.

Todd's a good leader.
He leads in a different way.

You guys mind
just getting out of the way?

Let me get it
out of there.

There's an easier way
to do things,

And then there's todd way.

Is he the best leader?
Probably not.

Turin:
people think todd's lazy, and...

I shouldn't even say that.

Hey, where's todd?

I don't know.

Todd's not a guy
that can work 12 hours a day.

He's not.
And I accept that.

I'm not built
for this kind of crap.

Narrator: then, after
just five weeks in the jungle,

Todd made
a very controversial decision.

I'm leaving in the morning
with my dad.

What?
What do you mean you're leaving?

It was an inopportune time
for him to leave,

There's no doubt about it.

I'm a work in progress
in a lot of areas in my life.

I don't have
the perfect marriage,

And you know what?

I try to keep
my promises to them.

Turin: there were
some decisions that he made

That I didn't agree with.

Me personally, I probably
would have done it differently.

When you're a leader and you're
gonna go out and do things,

Especially if you're
gonna go do it on television,

You got to be willing
to take your hits.

People are going to talk trash.

"Oh you should have done this,
you should have done that."

Well, you know what?

You're freaking sitting at home,

And you're
an armchair quarterback.

Well...
Parker and leadership?

Um...next question?

If you want sunday off,
take the [bleep] day.

I don't give a [bleep]

Narrator: parker has been
mining gold since he was a kid,

But he's still a rookie at
running a crew, and he knows it.

I ran my crew into the ground.

They were burned out.
They were tired.

There were points in the season

Where not a single person
wanted to be there.

When we start
getting treated like robots,

Don't expect much more
than a machine would give you.

You know, doing this kind of
work, it's just a [bleep] job.

I never, ever thought
that when I was in my 30s

That I would be working
for a teenager.

We need


I'm the boss --
I take the responsibility,

But it has to happen,
all right?

Let's crank it up.

Doumitt: parker, as a leader,
I think, is struggling.

He's more of a boss.

Parker: an employee's presence
is not a gift.

I buy it.

Parker: we just need to
keep the plant running.

It's [bleep] stupid
is what it is!

Ness:
it's a marathon, not a sprint.

You've got a six-month window.

You've got to pace yourself.

It is a sprint.
It's a 150-day sprint.

And if you're not
giving it 110% every day,

You're not gonna make it.

Narrator: greg took on
the role as crew spokesman.

This schedule's
not gonna work.

I know I'm not the only one
that feels this way.

If you're not happy,
then you can leave.

The door's always open.
End of conversation.

You have a --
end of conversation!

Greg's attempt to persuade
parker made the show,

But what we didn't see is that
he tried to start a revolt.

You know,
I went out on a limb

And spoke for
you and steve, as well,

As far as being tired,
and he's like,

"Well, why isn't everybody
coming to talk to me?

They afraid?"

Well, when he ends
a conversation

By kicking me off
the sluice box,

It's not really
a conversation.

I don't even
bother anymore, you know?

I didn't try to create a mutiny.

What I did do
is I tried to get the other guys

To express themselves
to parker.

I think we got to
bind together

And stand against
this insanity.

Yeah, okay.

When your two friends,
you know, have a problem,

You swing their way
while you're talking to them,

But I tried to remain, you know,
as neutral as I could.

There's a lot of people
that aren't happy with their job

That suck it up
and deal with it.

I was very close to leaving,
but then I also remembered

That I'd have to
look my kids in the eyes

And explain to them
that I had quit.

Narrator: parker ended up
keeping his key crew happy

By giving them
a cut of the gold.

But in this
never-before-seen footage,

He actually lost crew
at an alarming rate.

A lot of them
didn't even make it long enough

To get on the show.

Hey, darren, what time
did you leave yesterday?

Well, I was here at 4:30,
and you weren't here.

And I told you to work
till 5:00, right?

Mm-hmm, yeah.

I'm not gonna say that I have
a good management style.

In fact, I'll be
the first one to state

That I probably make
more mistakes with people

Than I do anything else,

But I wasn't gonna let anybody
hold me back this season,

And that's why
every time there was an issue,

I let people know.

All right,
well, you're fired.

You left early,
and that's unacceptable.

We did have a problem
keeping truck drivers this year.

I think we ran through
like eight people.

Narrator:
if they weren't fired,

They refused to work
under parker's regime.

One-day notice, ed?

I got to do what I got to do.
That is [bleep]

I don't want to leave you
high and dry, that's for sure.

I want to...

Oh, for [bleep] sake.
Why does this keep happening?

Parker: people quit.

We fire people.

There was some dark moments,

But I did it my way.

Narrator:
in guyana, the hoffman crew
dealt with adversity every day.

But when they enlisted the help

Of brazilian miner
antonio tavares,

They had no idea

It would lead to
the worst tragedy of the season.

Can you take us there?

Yes, yes.

[ Speaking native language ]

Yes, positive he will.

Okay, let's get our stuff.

So, we got antonio.

He's gonna try to take us in

And find a couple
good spots for us

That have really good gold
and really good diamonds.

He's got more knowledge

Than probably anybody
down in that area.

[ Speaking native language ]

Interpreter:
this position...

Narrator: todd knew life in
the jungle would be dangerous.

Todd: you're going out
and trying to get gold,

And you're just wondering

If one of us is going to go home
in a body bag.

Narrator:
but none of the hoffman crew
expected a brutal k*lling.

The next day,
after he was prospecting,

We got the news that while
he was helping us prospect,

People broke into his camp.

Todd:
guys, I got some bad news.

Antonio's wife
was m*rder*d yesterday.

Man:
are you kidding me?

We don't know
the circumstances.

I don't know what happened.

His gold got stolen,
and his wife got m*rder*d

At the exact same time
that we're together.

Yeah, it makes our problems
pretty small.

It really puts everything
in perspective.

This is the real deal.

This is no joke, no tv bullcrap.
This is real.

It made the news
all over south america.

And that is just an eye-opener

On what can happen down there,
you know?

It makes you really start
thinking about

What the hell
you're doing in the jungle.

Freddy:
if he wasn't with me that day,
would his wife be alive?

So, you know, that makes you
not sleep at night,

Those things
going through your mind.

And it brought it home
to me, you know,

That we're deep in it, man.

We're deep in it.

We got to watch ourselves,

And we got to watch
each other's back.

Narrator: coming up, dustin
makes the shocking announcement

That someone is being cut
from the dakota boys crew.

Get that [bleep]
off that machine.

[Bleep] won't be working
with me.

Narrator:
after three hard years

Of trying to reach
a pile of gold

At the bottom of the glory hole,

Fred suddenly made
a momentous decision.

Dustin: do you or do you not
want to dig this?

This is [bleep]

Fred gave up
before we hit bedrock.

I don't know why. I just --
he was tired of digging there.

Bedrock, my a*s.

Narrator: even when they found
good gold in the glory hole...

Tallis: look at it!
I've never seen them this big.

...fred was unimpressed

And wanted to call off
the three-year hunt.

Fred: there's not much else
in here, actually.

Waste of time.

Fred was gonna
cover up the hole, and I just --

I just couldn't deal with it.

I need to know
what's at the bottom.

I've got to.

I don't know how you could
just do that, man.

Narrator: dustin convinced fred
to take one last shot

At a pot of gold at the bottom
of the glory hole.

Fred:
yo! Get out of the way!

I'm canceling this.

Narrator: but their homemade
dredge didn't work.

Dustin:
had I been in charge,

I would have spent
the extra money

On getting
the dredge stuff correct.

Narrator: fred finally did
the unthinkable.

He closed the glory hole
once and for all...

There could still be

Millions of dollars
of gold down there,

And we left it.

Narrator: ...potentially
abandoning a fortune.

Is there a pot of gold down in
the bottom of that thing?

I would say absolutely yes.

Narrator:
the hoffman crew started
their disastrous jungle season

Convinced they would hit
the big time.

Todd:
when we went, we were confident.

We were like, "hey,
we're americans, by golly.

"With big equipment
and lots of horsepower

And lots of fuel,
we can do anything."

The whole plant and everything
is more efficient,

Less manpower.

We'll have the last laugh.

Narrator: but ultimately,

Todd's decision
to mine the jungle

Just like
they'd mined the klondike

Set them up for disaster.

The jungle says,
"no, you don't."

Turin: thought I could
get through here,

And it's all [bleep] for mud.

Just like through this whole
[bleep] country.

I don't think
it was the right equipment.

Bottom line is, it's too big.

Narrator: and what was never
revealed in the show --

The jungle forced dave
to his breaking point.

You can say I'm gonna quit
or give up

Or whatever the [bleep]
you want to say but...

It was one of the hardest times
I've ever dealt with

Because I was failing
so miserably.

No, I'm [bleep] done.

This is [bleep] ed.

It's good enough,
it's good enough.

I couldn't even get
that pay dirt to my trommel.

So, it was total frustration.

And then, you put a camera
in a guy's face

And you ask him
how he feels about it.

[Bleep] ed!

We don't -- look,
you can't have the whole

[Bleep] tv show
a bunch of people

Pulling trucks out of mud.

It doesn't work.

It doesn't work.

Nobody likes to fail,
but when you've got


Your failure

And your total frustration
and not having some success...

[Bleep] it don't matter!
It don't do me any good there!

I'm not proud of it.

I'm embarrassed.

Yeah, I think you got enough
of a reaction out of me.

You've got four [bleep]
and three or four [bleep]

And that's enough.

Narrator:
in the middle of dave's
meltdown, he had an epiphany.

Turin:
I was desperate.

At that point,
I knew the mining was a failure.

You can turn
the cameras off.

We don't know
what we're gonna do.

Narrator:
dakota fred's work ethic

Has never been questioned,

But his leadership skills
have always been controversial.

What the [bleep] is it?

I am not
the master people person.

I need somebody on here
[bleep] now.

Dustin: fred doesn't know
where people go.

At all times,
there's usually people

Outside of their comfort zone
or where they want to be.

I'm not used to
these conditions.

[Bleep]

[Bleep] you!

Why are you putting this person
on an excavator

When they obviously
hate this machine

And they're not any good at it?

Skalicky: [bleep]
all right, I'm done.

I want off this [bleep]
machine now.

Jeremy just had
a full-on panic attack.

Skalicky:
it was rocking back and forth.

It was too high up.

People can say whatever
the [bleep] they want.

It's a stressful situation.

"This isn't my job.
I should be doing this."

Blah, blah, blah.
All that crap.

And it's just 'cause he didn't
know where to put everybody.

If he didn't like it,
well, tough [bleep]

Narrator:
what no one admitted at the time

Was that fred's crew
was a dysfunctional mess.

If this guy is just gonna
get off his machine

Whenever he pleases
because he gets frustrated,

I've got a problem with that.

Everybody got a little bitchy.

I don't even know
what he's doing,

Having a nice little rest
while we're all working.

[ Chuckles ] melody brought up
a bunch of bickering.

He is not a team player.

She never shut up about it,
actually.

Tallis:
I'm still learning things,

But I have never
got off the machine.

Skalicky:
well, good [bleep] for you.

Every time I had a problem
or have had a problem --

You just cried.

Fred.
[ Laughs ]

Did I get off
the machine?

Narrator:
as a result of the dakota boys'
troubles this season,

Dustin has made a radical change
to next year's crew.

I'm not gonna ask melody back.
She won't be working with me.

Jeremy probably
won't wa nt to come back.

I'll still work with fred.

I just -- I can't let him
be my boss so much.

Narrator: in guyana, the hoffman
crew's chase for gold

Got sidetracked...

Guys, you're gonna
want to see this.

...when todd made
the controversial decision

To shift the crew's focus
to diamonds.

But not one of us here knows
jack squat about catching them.

Well [bleep] what do you mean,
"find diamonds"?

We don't know anything
about diamonds.

Narrator: what we didn't know

Was just how skeptical
critical crew members were.

Turin:
here's my question, freddy --

Is this gonna mess
with our gold recovery?

I mean, todd wants diamonds,
but I'm still for the gold, man.

Yeah, it's gonna slow the gold
recovery down a little bit.

We were set up to mine for gold,

And I think it kind of changed
the direction of everything.

But what if I popped out

A $5 million
or a $10 million diamond?

Then I'm a genius, right?

Narrator: after spending
hundreds of thousands of dollars

And finding just
two ounces of gold,

The crew pinned all their hopes
on the value of 130 diamonds.

Blaschke: nobody knew the value
of diamonds.

Nobody knew, you know,
if you found one,

Is it worth $10
or worth, you know, a million?

We were all hoping
to walk out of there

With a good chunk of change.

Narrator: but the final tally
hit like a ton of bricks.

This is worth maybe $1,350 u.s.

Narrator:
even less than the two ounces
of gold they pulled out.

Turin:
I still believe to this day

That we should have
concentrated on the gold,

And the diamonds are a plus.

Diamonds
are a girl's best friend.

Gold's mine.

Todd:
you live with your decisions.

Unfortunately, sometimes
they're not, you know, the best.

Narrator:
coming up, for the first time,

The miners reveal their wild,
ambitious plans for next year.

I'm gonna mine a waterfall.

Narrator: as the klondike season
came to a close,

Parker and his crew
defied the odds,

Not only hitting, but exceeding
their 800-ounce goal.



[ Laughs ]

Through hard work,

They delivered
what the hoffmans never could.

Doumitt:
greg and I needed a victory.

"You're all millionaires.
Dig it out of the ground."

We know that didn't happen.

"We're getting 100 ounces."


We lost that one.


That one fell short.

Parker says we can get 800.

We needed to finally succeed
to hit a goal.

Narrator:
but parker shocked everyone

By refusing
to quit the klondike.

It never ends with parker.
It's just --

We talked about how, you know,

We weren't gonna go late
in the season.

And what did we do?
We went longer.

Parker:
it was doing the math.



Oh!

[ Metal creaking ]

It was insane.

Narrator: just six months after
arriving as a klondike rookie,

Parker had mined
over 1,000 ounces.

He actually surprised me
at times with, you know,

How wise he is for his age.

Narrator:
he grossed almost $1.5 million,

But for parker,
it wasn't just about the money.

Parker: my payoff
was always showing my grandpa

And getting his approval.

Parker!
Hey, parker!

And that always
was in the back of my head

This entire summer.

Grandpa,
I'm glad you made it.

You don't know how glad I am
that I did make it.

[ Laughter ]

I mean, it was beautiful.

It was beautiful the way he just
helped mold me into who I am.

I mean, my parents
are owed a lot, as well,

But when it comes to
gold mining, it was my grandpa.

Wow!

I was super stoked

Because so much of it
was just relief.

A million dollars
on the table.

I'm going to the yukon.

[ Laughter ]

Narrator: for parker,
the money wasn't the big payoff.

Parker: seeing the look
on my grandpa's face,

It was...unbelievably moving.

You made
a great decision.

How much it meant to him
and just how proud he was,

'Cause there's a damn good
chance that's probably

The only opportunity
to do that in my life.

This jungle is either gonna
make us or break us.

I mean, it pissed us off,
you know.

Oh!

Kicked the [bleep] out of us.

Narrator: one miner gave
the jungle his best shot.

We're not in kansas anymore,
bryan.

But without revealing
his reasons at the time,

Freddy
abruptly left the jungle.

I really didn't have a choice.
I had to go.

I have to take care
of my own stuff.

Turin: he didn't want to stake
his reputation

On the ultimate failure
in mining,

And he didn't want to
be a part of it.

Narrator: what we now know is
that freddy left south america

To return to the yukon
to mine carmacks,

The claim todd hoffman rejected
in favor of the jungle.

Freddy:
so, it's a family operation.

It's my brother derek,

My sister-in-law irene,
and myself.

Yeah, derek,
I'm firing the screen up.

Derek: this creek has a lot
of real coarse gold in it.

And that's one of
the nice things

About mining
this particular piece of ground.

Freddy: we're using
this derocker that derek built

To get rid of our big rock,
to wash it off.

Material goes through
a nugget-trap sluice system,

Hits the screen deck, goes down
a fine-gold sluice system

And another nugget-trap sluice.

Narrator: using the right
equipment on proven ground

With just three people
paid off big time.

Derek: hey, there's
a little nugget right there.

See, there's another one.

I traveled 7,000 miles
to get here,

And what I just saw
made it worthwhile.

Gold room.

I bought one.
Todd bought one.

Time to do a cleanup.

Look at that one.
Whoo!

This is some more
we found in that bucket.

Freddy:
it's beautiful gold here.

Look at that piece.
That's a nice piece.

I only took about four blades
out of there, eh?

Well, that bottom four feet's
running about $75, $80 a yard.

Narrator: carmacks turned out
to be the best ground

That any "gold rush" crew
has ever mined.

We knew there was big gold
in there.

I told todd
there was gonna be big gold.

It's proven itself to be true.

Looking back, with hindsight,

I think it probably
would've made more sense

To go to carmacks.

Do you think going to
the jungle over carmacks

Was the right thing
to do?

Uh, you know, on paper

It probably looked like
a great idea.

Hindsight,
looks like a bad mistake.

Narrator: this gold, a fraction
of freddy's total haul,

Is worth more than 10 times

What the hoffmans produced
all season.

Freddy: this is just
some of the big stuff.

That speaks for itself.

Narrator: this season...
[ Bleep ]

...gene cheeseman was a key
addition to parker's crew...

[Bleep] [bleep]

...a great miner and mechanic
but not a fan of the tv cameras.

They're a pain in the a*s.

You need to back [bleep] up.

Just like right now.
You're being a pain in my a*s.

He doesn't want to talk.

I don't give a [bleep]
I'm not talking to you.

Patience is not
one of his greatest virtues.

Every time
I [bleep] turn around,

You guys are standing
right behind me in [bleep] way.

It's not pretty.
He either clams up or flips out.

I don't know if I had
any time where I loved
them being around me.

He was there to do his best

To make sure
that parker succeeded.

Parker: he won't come in here
and say it,

But the key to our season
was gene.

Good job.
Yep.

Are we done with this
so I can go have a beer?

Narrator: with a new season
just around the corner,

All the miners
face make-or-break decisions.

The dakota boys were pinning
their hopes for the future

On cahoon creek.

We went up into the mountains
and got some core samples.

Let's go.
[ Drilling ]

Dustin:
the only thing we can do is
send these samples off to a lab.

Narrator: the results from
the core sample way up in cahoon

Were not
what they were hoping for.

Dustin: we found gold
in the core samples,

But it just would
cost so much money

To have a really big operation
up there

That it just is not worth it
at this time.

I'm done with porcupine.

I'm not gonna be
digging there anymore.

Narrator: with porcupine
mined out and cahoon a bust,

Dustin convinced fred
to look at

An extraordinary new project
for next year.

I'm gonna dig out
mckinley falls.

There's a giant waterfall,

And at the bottom
of the plunge pool,

I think there's gold in there.

Narrator:
the mckinley falls plunge pool

Was first mined
over 100 years ago.

All that remains today

Is the manmade cave
used to divert the water.

Dustin:
it took them six years

And an army full of people
to do this.

I'm trying to do it
in one season.

Narrator: the only way
to get to mckinley falls

Is by the cable


What the hell are you
getting me involved in?

I haven't tried so hard
to get somewhere in my life.

Now I am
getting a little nervous.

All right, dustin.

I'm just about ready.

Come on over.

Whoo.

Wow.

Incredible up here.

How are you doing,
fred?

Keep going.

Man, what a view.

How in the hell
are you ever gonna mine that?

Holy [bleep]
fred, look at this.

To mine
the pool under the falls,

Dustin will have to
divert 24,000 gallons a minute.

That's amazing!

Them old miners
were something else, huh?

He plans to build a small flume

To divert the river
into the cave entrance.

On the downstream side,

He'll then have to build
a 200-foot flume

To channel the water
away from the plunge pool,

Leaving it dry
and ready to mine.

I'm gonna go
check out that cave.

The only way up into the cave
is a 40-foot ascent.

Dustin: in all the pictures
that I saw from the 1900s,

They used
expl*sives and hand drills.

It was an amazing feat.

This is something
that we couldn't do,

But being that
it's here already,

I could actually use it.

Wow.

There's gold
in every one of these pools.

Only problem is
this raging water.

It's just so hard to get to.

I have to make this water --

Instead of going that way,
it has to come this way.

It has to
come straight through here

And back behind me
through this cave,

And that's a big deal.

Hey, fred?

Yeah, I got you.

We're gonna have to
build a flume that comes
straight out from here

And over that rock wall
over there.

I can do this. I can definitely
do this, but I'm terrified.

This is the biggest damn
operation I've ever looked at.

This is huge.

I'm gonna mine a waterfall.

Narrator:
despite dustin's enthusiasm,

Fred's not convinced.

I just don't see me getting
involved in this project at all.

Some of the stuff
that he's proposing,

I don't think he has a clue
as to how to do it.

When I'm done this,
I want to be a millionaire.

This thing has a huge,
huge potential to go bankrupt.

Narrator: this season,

Parker got an impressive
1,029 ounces of gold,

But getting it out of the ground
was an epic struggle.

This season, tony didn't
give me the good ground.

Narrator:
next year, parker is dead set

On mining a lot more gold.

If I'm gonna
get where I want to be

And we're gonna find the kind
of gold that I want to find,

We need better ground.

Narrator: and he may have found
that opportunity

When he returned home
and discovered

Big gold on smith creek.

Ain't that
a great nugget?

Parker:
it actually makes me wonder
what I'm doing next season.

You know, if I have the
opportunity to make money mining

And be with my family
and be with my grandpa,

Then that's pretty attractive.

You know, I've closed this gate
once before

Thinking I'd never come back,

But, you know,

Coming back may have been the
smartest thing I've ever done.

Everything I made last year
I lost right down there.

Narrator: the future of
the hoffman crew is in jeopardy.

We've lost
more than anybody can imagine.

It's a complete disaster.

It's been a failure.

As far as the crew goes,
we don't have anything solid.

I will continue to gold mine.

I don't know if
it's gonna be with the hoffmans.

Basically, I'm
back at square one with my debt.

Narrator: this could be the end
of the road for todd and jack.

I don't know
what todd's gonna do.

I don't have any of the leases
on the equipment anymore.

I got nothing.

It's worse than bad.

What I have to do
to go mining next year

Will be nothing less
than a miracle.