Original subtitles

Seven down on their luck miners have ventured to the edge of the Arctic Circle to find gold in the frozen north.

Let's team up again and really hit it hard 100%.

In tough times, they are risking everything on an unknown plane.

What's to say that this mine is going to pay?

They've drilled test holes and are on the gold.

Do a lot better than what we did last year?

Now, the Huffman crew finally gets down to pay dirt.

Finally, we're there!

But getting the gold out of the frozen ground is pushing machines.

Out of them are clogged and meant to their breaking point.

You guys can get that **** out of your mind right now.

You're seeing a love story, it's a freak gold mine.

Down at Porcupine Creek, rival miner Dakota Fred fights to keep his head above water.

Oh, Lord, it's bad.

And at Big Nugget Mine, 16-year-old Parker Shnavel must move mountains.

We're going to do it! We're going to die!

To stay ahead of the competition.

This is the American Green, this is what it is.

At the Courts Creek Gold claim, up in the Klondike.

The Huffman crew finally has a break for it.

It is their second season mine and this is Maker Break.

Tell you what, I just get sick of this black bud.

I'm having a good day because I've seen the last of it get out of our pet right here.

60 days into the short 150 day gold mining season.

They are finally hitting patron.

Yeah, I'm excited.

Well, I see white quartz. This should be where the gold is.

Woohoo!

Good news, you guys.

We hit gravel.

Let's get a...

Finally, we're there.

Welcome to the Klondike.

Since they arrived, the Huffman crew has battled the brutal landscape.

Holy cow.

Ripping through eight feet of frozen earth.

That is a big frickin' child's eyes.

Fighting back a sea of mud to get down to gold bearing gravel.

Now, it's finally time to get to the gold.

I want a huge pile of paper here, so...

They've bringing it out.

So this is the first bucket of gold bearing gravel right here.

This is it. Here we go.

We step closer.

So we'll reach over and grab it.

Boom.

Process.

For the first time, since they're failed rookie mining season,

the Huffman crew is ready to run Peter through the wash plan.

But they've not had the chance to test their complex machine.

You know what? There's a lot of moving parts, but they're all going to work.

It's going to work, Ned.

There are two main components, a shaker and hydraulic ripples.

First, the Peter drops into the shaker.

The dirt and rocks immediately get washed.

Anything over two inches is discarded.

Gold bearing material is washed down into the hydraulic ripples.

Here, 1,500 gallons of water a minute are pumped through 2,400 tiny nonsens

onto a series of metal ridges.

Because gold is 19 times heavier than water,

it finally settles in the ridges.

While the remaining dirt is flushed out of the wash plan.

The ripples' sluices are a finely tuned system.

Getting gold and a lot of it depends on the Huffman's getting them just right.

This is the old shaker. You don't really know until you get into it.

Start running it. How many issues you really have?

Pretty close to getting this thing going here.

Are you ready?

Jack, can you turn the shaker on?

Try everything.

First time we've had everything running, it's just current.

We're ready to go.

Finally, it's time to put the hydraulic ripples to the test.

Grant!

Woo!

Look at these hydraulic ripples.

Out of them are clogged.

Yep.

They're here, underneath.

Any of them are open.

The crew quickly determines that the water they're pumping in from their feed pond is full of dirt

and it's clogging up the nonsens.

The roots got in there and filled up the tube with red.

So, this will be an ongoing issue until it's all gone.

I mean, it doesn't take much to plug it at eight days' hole.

No, I'm afraid they've got so much crap in them.

They're going to keep plugging up.

You'd have to do this all day long.

Todd, you see that up?

Real problem with those hydraulic ripples, they got such small holes that they keep plugging up.

So, we got to have a really good filter system.

We order to make those work.

We don't know how we're going to do that.

Without first filtering the water from their holding pond,

the hotman crew won't be able to run dirt.

Well, we basically need to filter on the front end, James.

I mean, you're going to have to freaking either make this from scratch.

I don't even know.

The crew is now 61 days behind and their mining season is slowly slipping away.

The only thing between them and the gold now is a basic water filter.

Well, I'll try to figure something out.

James has got to come up with something else one more thing.

Bring him come through and try to save our bacon.

Their fate rests in the hands of mechanic James Harness.

600 miles to the south at the Hotman's old claim in Porcupine Creek.

Mining has ground to a halt.

Fred has left the claim, leaving some dust in with a list of chores.

He said fine gold.

He wrote fine gold on here.

What the hell was that?

In the last few weeks, Dakota Fred's had one set back after another.

First is 270 excavator broke down.

Nothing.

We are out of operation.

And then disaster struck in his hometown of Minut, North Dakota.

Our house is going to go underwater.

Fred was forced to abandon his dreams of gold to head home and assess the damage.

He did wonder how much a guy can take.

Minut, North Dakota's seen its worst flooding in 40 years.

Over 4,000 homes have been destroyed.

Yeah, I guess we'll see what we're going to see.

Fred is about to find out if his is one of them.

Wow, look at the little cabin.

Oh, got up and floated away.

Used to be out there somewhere.

Wow, look at the water coming over the road.

This water was five feet higher than it is right now.

Man, this is one of the neighbor's loaders here.

And it went on to water.

There's my little house.

Holy cow, looking to water.

Wow, what a mess, what a mess.

Oh, Lord.

It's bad.

Oh, Lord.

That's going to be tough.

Coming up.

So just keep her out of it, dude.

It's not just me.

A new love derails harness when Todd needs him most.

I might get fat Batman and he's like a broken down robin.

For Dakota Fred, the bad news keeps coming.

The house is destroyed.

And as Parker snuggled pushes for more gold,

his inexperienced starts to show.

Me.

At the big nugget mine in southeast Alaska,

16 year old Parker shnobble already has over 10 ounces of gold

worth $16,000 this season.

But he is run out of paydard.

Let's go for an adventure.

He's on the hunt for virgin ground.

Ground that he hopes has never seen a shovel.

For the last three years, Big nugget has struggled to break even.

Parker must find another 65 ounces of gold worth $100,000 in just 89 days.

If he fails, the mind that his beloved grandpa has worked for the last 25 years,

could go bus.

That's about making money.

That's what matters.

Last week, he blew $10,000 excavating under an old bucket lift.

How deep are these big?

And found just $500 in gold.

I mean, nobody likes to lose money.

Socks.

Out of options.

Parker surveys one of the last remaining areas of the claim that could be untouched.

See, my way of thinking is that if this hasn't been like stripped and dug up,

then there would be big trees.

So up there, a little ways, you start to get into some pretty nice high spruce trees.

So I'm hoping that if we get up in there, it'll just be like,

Oh, gold.

The virgin land is known as Smith Creek, but there's one snack.

It's halfway up a small mountain.

Thousands of years ago, a creek ran through this land.

Parker believes that gold deposits were washed down from the mountains,

settling on the riverbed.

Over time, the creek shifted course, cutting a new path through the hillside,

leaving Smith Creek high and dry.

Vegetation filled in Smith Creek, locking in any gold that it contained.

Parker's plan is to build a road up to the virgin ground,

so that he can transport paders down to the wash plan.

To supply the plant, I have to bring about 15 loads every day.

And if we're getting there from up here, it'll have to be down this hill every day,

15 loads.

So that's 30 trips, 15 up, 15 down.

Parker's decision is a big gem and a lot of work.

On a hunch, he will spend six days and eight thousand dollars to find out

that there's gold on top of Smith Creek Hill.

I could be down in Vegas, putting it on 27 red or whatever,

but instead of putting it on Smith Creek.

To increase his chance of success, he calls in his father and brother.

My dad's a road builder, and we're trying to build a road.

So, who are you going to call?

Roger Schnubble has been building roads for 40 years.

The mission today really is to get up to the top.

Yeah.

Into that gut.

And eventually you want to road up there, right?

Yeah.

I don't know what his 20-year plan is.

But he wants to get access up there.

That's what all all do.

Parker and older brother, Patzen, struggled to keep up with their dad.

My dad's this kind of always full speed ahead of him and God.

And I like that, because when he's up here, we get a lot done.

I want him to do his thing, you know?

That's why he's up here, because he's the best.

That's the way he does.

Dakota Fred has left behind his mind and porcupine creek for his hometown of

Minot, North Dakota.

He is serving the devastating flood damage for the first time.

Holy cow.

Look at a countertop.

The water reached 20 feet in this area.

See the refrigerator exploded.

See what?

Ha.

They get a mud in here.

All that was underwater.

Fred has almost nothing left.

His only hope now is to find gold in porcupine.

This, you know, might even be something that kind of really spurs me on

to go back up to porcupine and give it my 110%.

2,000 miles northwest at Big Nuggetmine.

It's full steam ahead for the snobbles.

Woo!

You know, I just want to get as much done as I can today if we get on top.

Great.

If not, I've got a big challenge next week.

It's day 61 of the 150 day mining season.

Every day, Parker's not finding gold.

He's burning fuel.

He needs to make money.

Not spending.

I set that deadline for next Friday to run dirt out of here.

It's a tough target.

First, the snobbles must carve out a path

up a 70-foot cliff wall.

Then move 2,000 tons of dirt to build a 50% great road up to virgin ground.

His dad and brother can only afford to dedicate one day to road building.

Oh, my grandfaces here.

Now we've got the aid team.

I've ready to do whatever they won't be to do.

John Schnobble has been working this mine for over 25 years.

He's now 91 years old.

But that is never stopped him.

Now three generations worked to build the road that could save their big nugget mine.

Tony, they're close to the top.

We're going to do it.

We're going to die.

See why he's got my dad up here?

He kicks ass.

Up at the quartz creek claim in the clandike.

The Hoffman crew is over a third of their way through their second season.

And they haven't even started mining.

They have no hope of striking gold

until mechanic James Harness builds a water filtration system for the wash plan.

The filter, if I make it right, should be able to never plug off.

It'll never have to be serviced.

And it should be like it's not even there.

They need the filter right away.

The Hoffman's are burning through a thousand dollars a day.

Stockpiling the gravel.

They hope holds gold.

I can bear the thing going.

Kachan Kachan, you know, money is going out.

And we don't have anything coming in yet.

The crew has faith that harness will come through.

He's very essential to the operation.

And that's why he is picked to be part of the team.

It's because he's got skills that not many people have.

Not many people have a good mechanic in this whole area.

I think the whole crew is ready to go.

I think you'll see in a day or two we're going to be collecting gold.

Some people think the American dream is a story house.

The life ticket fence.

He did charge on the driveway.

And I could get that up any day of the week.

This is the American dream.

This is what it is.

Their dreams rest on one man's shoulders.

But without explanation.

All work on the filter has come to a screeching halt.

Harness's new girlfriend has arrived from Oregon.

Hey, not.

Hey, I'm taught.

How you doing?

This Catherine?

This Catherine.

Mechanic and romantic James Harness has been married in divorce four times.

I have to say that even if I don't find gold in the ground, I found gold with her.

Someone who minerals around here is amazing.

Pretty easy to be gold nugget.

True.

What the heck?

Look at James.

He's like, he's just a girl for an out of pan right now.

But the heck, he's supposed to be welding on that thing.

It's the harness riding season again.

I have not met Harness's lady.

No, I have not.

I've been what they call working.

Hey, Chris.

Tell them a little more welding, little less panning.

I see.

Hey, to tell you this, boss, what are you telling?

Without any progress on the filter.

Harness heads into town with his lady for a couple of days of R&R.

It's my job to make sure they keep running.

I accepted it, so I'll follow it through.

It doesn't mean I can't have fun in the meantime.

It's hard because I see him.

He's like, he looks like a kid.

He's like, happy and love.

And it's like, he doesn't get that we're like all freaking out

ready to run, freaking gold.

The Hoffman crew now has 88 days left to mine.

If they can't get back on track, they will again return to the lower 48.

With nothing to show for their efforts.

Say a love story.

It's a freaking gold mine.

At Big Nuggetmine, Parker in three generations of Schnabel Men have built a steep road

up to what Parker believes is virgin ground.

To mine Smith Creek Hill, he has to first pave the steep narrow road with rock.

He will do it with his six wheel dump truck alone.

Today is going to be a pretty uncomfortable day just because that hill steep.

And I don't really like being up there.

You know, you got a 25 ton truck with 20 tons of dirt in the back of it.

If I lose my brakes or something happens on that hill, just straight into the river.

It's about it.

It's a challenge for someone fresh out of the 11th grade.

Yeah, nervous, but nervous is a good thing, I think.

Especially when you're doing this kind of thing.

Parker risks his equipment and his life.

He can come over that hill.

He's going 50 miles an hour, time to hit the bottom.

He bounces his head up against the ceiling.

The truck flies in the air into that river.

Tromples up into a pilot's shoulder.

If the truck stalls and the brakes don't hold, it will Korean into the freezing creek below.

Come on.

He was to make sure that he's not racing down that hill to death.

At the big nugget mine, in southeast Alaska,

16-year-old Parker shnobble holes, 45 tons of truck and gruffling up a steep 50% gritty.

To stabilize the road up to the virgin ground on Smith Creek Hill,

he has to get rock onto the steepest sections.

That's the fall trial.

Parker just makes it to the summit.

Deep.

Success.

One down.

Probably 20 to go.

Up at Quartz Creek in the Klandai, the parts for the filtration system are waiting for missing

mechanic James Harness, along with an impatient crew.

He's kind of missing one of our guys, and he's kind of the head engineer slash builder.

The guy's exceptional when he's here, but he's been missing last couple days, though.

I don't know where he's at now, maybe in doubt, so I'm not sure.

All the Hoffman crew can do is to continue stockpiling dirt to break even this season.

They have to find a minimum of 70 ounces of gold worth 110,000 dollars.

The Klandai mining season is 150 days.

They only have 87 left.

We're going to be waiting on that filter.

And there it sits.

This point thing about the filter is, is not getting worked on.

And that's the last thing that's stopping us.

I want to know what that gold now.

I've already said enough.

We'll deal with later when we get James here.

James finally arrives.

Good job.

Hey Todd.

Do you want me James? I'll be over here when you're ready.

Okay.

Hey Brad, it's a girl, Brad.

That's cool, but I'm just hoping for a couple filters.

So how's it going?

Stan's still pretty much.

Yeah.

We cannot run without this filter.

And I'm hurt because I feel like you should just bust your ass.

And just get us going.

I didn't.

I've been here for a solid two weeks without going anywhere.

I've devoted all my time to this project.

And it almost hurts me for you to say anything.

Dude, I'm not just me.

It's not just me.

The rest of the guys are feeling the same way.

Right now, I just don't think you're 100% in this thing this year.

And I don't know if it's a pain or if it's your girlfriend or what.

If you want to talk about Katherine, she's been very patient.

Okay. So you guys can get that out of your mind right now.

All right.

Okay. Well, I've never said anything negative about that way.

Okay.

She's a great lady.

So just keep her out of it.

This is between you and me and this machine right here that I don't want to come between us.

Who didn't either do hi?

Dude, I'm your fan.

Dude, I'm James Horst fan.

That's whole group.

Okay.

One guy's come through for you over and over again. That's me.

Okay.

I am not.

You can turn that around backwards going the other way, too.

When if I ever told you anything that wasn't true,

or didn't turn out to be a good thing.

That's what I'm wondering.

I'm feel like it's now.

I feel like right now, you and I are freaking worlds apart.

We're just worlds apart right now.

And I don't like being worlds apart from James Horst.

Because I'm a James Horst fan.

I always have been.

How are we going to fix this?

What I'm trying to do is get a commitment on you and I want to know that you and me are good.

And then we're back on track.

We're good, man. We never were bad.

I wouldn't put this between us.

Okay.

But I need this thing yesterday.

All right, we're talking a bit.

Me and this guy together, you know, I dream of crap,

and he can freaking make it.

I'm like a fat Batman, and he's like a broken down robin.

So I don't want that team to ever end.

Only harness can restore hope within the Hoffman crew.

Everybody's had a kind of a frustrating couple of days trying to make this work.

I promised the guys that I'd make this happen,

and I would hate to let him down at this point.

Down at Big Nuggetmine in Alaska,

Parker has finished his steep road in just five days.

He's cleared of path to what he hopes his virgin grandma, full of gold.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy, really.

That's a long ways down to that road.

And we build a hell of a road.

It's a big moment for Parker and me as well.

I'm overjoyed that he was able to do it.

Parker shows off his new road to his grandpa.

There we go.

I'm nervous with you in here.

With nowhere to turn around,

that the sun Parker takes the truck up back.

So we're not.

I'm with you.

I'm fine.

I'm completely amazed.

25 tons of truck sinks into the softer.

If the ground continues to give way,

the truck could roll with Parker and John in it.

What happened?

There we go.

At the Big Nuggetmine, Parker has driven his 25 ton dump truck into a ditch near the top

of the Smith Creek Hill.

Wow, I'm pretty lucky.

If he tries to move the machine,

it could slip further into the hole,

flipping $35,000 worth of truck.

Yeah, another two feet and we're in trouble.

We're not out of the water yet.

Parker has a plan.

He will put his 330 excavator to good use.

I'm going to fill the ditch full of dirt.

And keep packing it down as good as I can.

With an upper under the front wheel,

the dump truck just may be able to drive back down the hill.

But Parker gets the 330's cab stuck

on the back of the truck.

Come on.

Come on.

Me.

He manages to get the cab free of the truck.

Thank God.

He in one piece of equipment all screwed up.

And you're like, oh, it's nothing.

I'll do it all myself.

I'm going to get it out myself.

And then you bust the cab up on your excavator.

Jesus, that was close.

Grandpa John Shnubble takes charge of the situation.

I strongly urge you to hook on to the back end with a table.

Pull it out backwards.

Put the router, we'll hook it back to the other end of the truck.

There you go. That's the right way.

91-year-old John Shnubble gets in the driver's seat of the 330,

to pull his grandson out of the ditch.

Stop.

Sorry. I'm going to go home.

Go to sleep.

Sorry.

Oh, I'm happy we got it out of there.

He is out of trouble, but he's wasted a day and over $1,000.

I'm going to go clean up that mess and go put a bandaid on my pride.

Dakota Fred is on the road back in Alaska.

He's ready once again to mine.

His house back in North Dakota is a total loss.

All his possessions are ruined.

The only thing left is the gold mine.

And out there, we're going to be able to do about the house.

Where we could salvage out of it, we've salvaged.

And I can come back up here.

I want to do better than just break even.

I'm going to try to get this operation going with a vengeance.

But Fred kept mine until he fixes his broken excavator.

He's brought with him the parts he needs.

A week ago, mining came to a halt when the starter motor

on the 270 excavator failed.

I was here. He's trouble here with this thing.

Fred and Dustin waste no time getting the new starter installed.

There goes right there.

All right. All right, do it.

Again.

This starter doesn't even turn over.

I have no idea what the deal is.

None.

Out of options read this minute.

Let's try one last thing.

What's that?

We call it quits.

Dustin comes with a plan to bypass the electrical system.

He connects the battery right to the starter motor.

Let's see what we can do.

You're a thing. You do the honors.

I don't think he's going to work.

All right. Give it a try.

All right. I'll be fired up.

Whoa.

There you go.

Got it running.

What the hell?

Don't turn it off.

Boy, that put a smile on my face.

Good job, man.

Come on.

All right.

Let me get this thing out of here.

Now.

Whoa.

Step back.

Let's go.

After a week at a standstill,

Harkipine Creek is back in business.

With 84 days of the mining season left,

Fred is still confident he can make Harkipine Creek pay.

And beat the Hoffman's in the race for gold.

Probably only got to get about 10 times too much of it again.

Back up at Quartz Creek.

James Harness is finally attacking the filtration system.

For nearly a week, it's the only thing between the Hoffman's and the gold.

It's a big jump.

The holes for those pipes need to be cut out.

Everything needs to be welded in place.

The screen needs to be cut to size.

A couple days work, really.

Harness's plan is to pump the dirty water from the feed pond

into the bottom of a large steel tube.

As the water rises,

it's forced through a screen that should stop any mud

large enough to block the ripples from entering the system.

The clean water is then forced out from the top and in to the wash plan.

With the crew losing a thousand dollars a day in operating costs,

Harness has to work nonstop to finish the filter.

He's going to be working hard on it all night.

So, you know, by the end of the morning,

James is going to be one in Josh,

he has to make over 58 feet of welds on his knees in a pipe

where temperatures approach 100 degrees.

Last season, Harness battled the billetating back pain.

I beg your shot.

Radical surgery during the off season gave him a new lease on life.

Now, he risks undoing it all.

When I do this kind of stuff, my body swells up

and then it starts to cramp and it hurts like hell.

I can't do this normally.

So, I'm fighting every second of it.

It's just what I have to do.

It's that or go home and I'm not going home.

By 3 a.m., he's a broken man.

My body's starting to shut down because I heard so bad.

I got to call a quits for now or...

If Harness can't finish the filter,

the Hoffman crew will be left high and dry.

At the big nugget mine, in southeast Alaska,

16 year old Parker Schnabel is once again close to mine.

He spent over $8,000 and six days to get his new road built.

The deadline was to run dirt today,

so if I could get three or four loads out, that would be nice.

Go for that.

Parker backs the dump truck up to pick up his first load of Peter.

But, there's no gravel on the final stretch.

And again, the dump truck struggles.

Damn it.

I don't think I'm going to be able to make it.

That's just wet.

I failed.

I don't know how to money.

Burn a lot of fuel.

Not run the plan much.

It's tough.

It's clear that Parker will have to spend more time

and more money to lay gravel all the way to the top of the hill.

Six days, $8,000 and no gold to show for it.

Yet.

At Quartz Creek, the Hoffman crew wakes up to find

James Harness's nearly complete water filter.

Until it's finished, the Hoffman's won't be able to run dirt

through their wash plan.

He's got something cut here.

What do you think these are?

The worst is drying.

He's got a little sketching here, but this wasn't on his drying.

There's no sign of harness.

James's got special circumstances right now.

He's in a lot of pain and things like that.

He's sore.

He's probably going to be out for a couple days

because he's getting to that point.

After only four hours of sleep, James emerges.

All my backs are swollen up.

It feels like a bunch of knives stuck in there and just left the right.

He fights off the pain to finish the job.

We're going to pitch in and try to get it done and try to help.

It's all we can do.

He's working hard on it.

He's got the screen.

Put the seal on there.

We're getting ready now to throw the end plate on.

And the price should go helping.

The Huffman crew's mining season depends on harnesses filter.

It's dead.

It's so high.

All right brother.

Take care.

I got to go rest for a while.

Go get you.

Horizontal.

The thing that's sweet man looks like it could take off.

It's like a rocket.

James came through on this.

Really did.

The Huffman's have lost a week trying to build the filtration system.

They're finally ready to install it and fire up their wash plan.

Yeah.

Get excited about running.

You there?

If the water filter works, they can finally run dirt and get the first gold of their season.

We're about ready to light a fire here, buddy.

If the water runs through every nozzle and full power, harnesses filter is working.

Look at that.

That's enough to make it happen.

Captain right there.

Deha!

Got a long journey just to get to this one brick and point.

We've been waiting for this since the day we got here.

After 66 trying days, the Huffman crew is finally mining.

They can now run their pager through a working wash plan.

When we run this dirt, I'll guarantee there's going to be gold in it.

We're ready to rock.

I'm Crystal Doyle executive producer Gold Rush.

This time on the Gold Rush after show, Parker talks about his big gamble.

Up at Smith Creek.

So what's more stressful?

Gold mining or calculus?

Tough one.

Calculus?

No.

Gold mining.

Watch the Gold Rush after show at discovery.com slash Gold Rush after show.