Original subtitles

Previously on Deadman's Curse...

Let's go, let's go!

[Narrator] In Pitt Lake, British Columbia,

a team unites

in search of a hidden gold mine.

The legend describes that there's nuggets everywhere.

We're talking billions of dollars.

[Narrator] Word of the secret stash

fuelled rumours of riches.

Stories about this Slumach guy that found gold.

That Slumach was a murderer,

killing to protect the gold that he had found.

As he stood on the gallows,

Slumach expressed a curse.

[Kru] When I die, the mine dies.

A death sentence

to anyone that tries to find his gold.

[Narrator] But Taylor's research

cast doubt on the hundred-year-old story.

Do not trust anything which is published.

If this legend is a lie,

like, what are we doing?

[Narrator] Meanwhile, new evidence...

20 miles to the hidden treasure.

[Narrator] ...led Adam and Kru north...

Ugh!

Oh!

[Narrator] ...toward the source of the gold...

Watch out!

I got a good spot here.

Beautiful.

That's a good sign.

[Narrator] ...only to come up empty.

-No gold. -Nothing?

No.

[Narrator] Now a voice from the past...

Is there any other witness to the hanging?

This is absolutely incredible.

[Narrator] ...points the team closer to the truth...

...and possibly Slumach's legendary lost gold.

Crazy!

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[Narrator] North of Vancouver,

high on British Columbia's Mamquam Glacier...

...Adam and Kru's first expedition...

...ends in defeat...

I like to get gold.

I don't like to not get gold.

In a video game, if you climb a mountain,

you get gold coins, okay.

Not in real life.

Eliminating locations like this is part of the journey,

and sometimes,

you have to start all over again.

[Narrator] ...But their failure is shortlived.

There's nothing harder

than putting everything on the line

and getting nothing.

I'm not gonna stop, I'm not gonna quit.

That's the only way to get that gold.

[Narrator] The legend

of Slumach's Lost Creek Gold Mine

is wrapped in a mystery

and a deadly warning.

You could see how people

could believe there was a curse attached to it...

...but for me,

I'm a God-fearing man.

I fear God, not curses.

The curse is for quitters.

Kru is passionate,

but you cannot go looking for this lost gold mine

with gold fever.

That will get you killed.

[Narrator] With fog blowing in...

Watch out for the holes.

[Narrator] ...their helicopter ride home

can't come until tomorrow.

Here, the weather is erratic,

turning quickly on a dime.

A cold reminder of what's to come

when Mother Nature slams her door on the season.

In the ring of the mountains, you're going to get hit.

The mountain's always going to win.

Oh, boy, Adam.

Let's get out of here.

You honestly don't want to know how I'm feeling right now.

You wanna go make camp?

Whatever it takes to get out of here.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

[wind gusting]

Man, it's windy.

If it blows away, we'll be sleeping outside.

You got any rocks to throw in here?

When you're on a glacier at night...

...you're as alone as you can be.

I was not prepared.

That was the start of where things got crazy.

[thunder cracking]

[♪♪♪♪♪]

All I can say is something happened.

[♪♪♪♪♪]

You up?

[Narrator] Daybreak on the Mamquam.

[laughs]

You okay? You look like...

I've never seen Kru like this before.

All good?

You going to be good to go?

It doesn't even look like

he slept a single second in that tent.

A really weird night.

I just want to get out of here to be honest with you.

[Adam] The thing is,

if he can't handle this expedition,

how's he going to handle the next one?

We have less than 90 days to figure this out.

If you don't find it in three months,

you're waiting until the next year.

[Narrator] 40 kilometres south,

Taylor and Don

welcome Adam and Kru's safe return.

[Don] Happy to hear that sound.

-[Taylor imitates helicopter] -[Don] They made it.

-Hey, guys. -Hey!

-Welcome back. -You made it.

-How'd it go? -Barely made it back.

[Adam] I mean, the rappel over that peak

proved that there was no gold.

-No gold. -Nothing?

No.

[Adam] It actually put that landmark at rest.

There is no gold there.

Everything lined up, three peaks, tent-shaped rock,

but nothing in there, no.

No?

[Adam] It's time to regroup, heal up, rest up,

and, you know, plan our next trip.

[Taylor] Hey, you guys. Come, come, come.

[Narrator] While Adam and Kru were away...

What's up?

[Narrator] ...Taylor has uncovered

archive footage from a 1970s documentary.

It's a rare interview

with a woman named Amanda Charnley.

[Taylor] She was Katzie, just like Slumach.

Is there any other witness to the hanging?

Wow.

[Kru] Her father was there.

He talked to him before

and then he watched him die.

It doesn't get any closer than that.

Do you believe that Slumach had a gold mine somewhere?

[Narrator] According to Amanda,

Peter Pierre,

a trusted Elder from Katzie First Nation,

was by Slumach's side in the week before his death.

There, Slumach told Peter

a story that Amanda heard throughout her childhood.

While out canoeing on Pitt Lake,

Slumach was waved down by lost travellers.

[Narrator] The men had travelled

from Port Douglas to Glacier Lake.

Somehow, they made their way down river to Pitt Lake,

where they were rescued and guided out by Slumach.

And as a thanks,

the men paid him in gold and told him where to find more.

[Taylor] And these are

First Nations People from Port Douglas that, what?

Went on a trade route there?

Well, then Slumach would have known that trade route.

Absolutely.

If we can narrow down that route,

we can pinpoint the location of the mine.

Is there a place called "Certain Canyon"?

I don't know.

[Narrator] According to Amanda,

the directions paid off.

The part I like

is that the gold was so thick

that he could actually carve it out with a pen knife.

Like, you know

how big of a frickin' deposit that would have to be?

-Like, seriously. -The motherlode.

[Narrator] After the hanging,

Amanda's father tried to follow the trail Slumach laid out.

[Narrator] Stories of accidents--

even death--

follow those tempted by the gold,

but curse or no curse,

the lure of the legend grows strong.

He got as far as Second Canyon.

And then, he busts his hip.

Yeah.

And you know where Second Canyon is?

That's about 20K.

-[Taylor] 20K, wow. -From the head of the lake.

There's some big clues in this footage.

[Adam] Now we have more pieces of the puzzle.

All right, give me some names.

All right, Second Canyon.

[Adam] Peter Pierre was here, okay?

So from there, there's canyons.

-He went up, up... -Up, up, up.

[Adam] The next thing she mentions in the story

is these people from Port Douglas...

Right.

...coming from Glacier Lake.

The trade route.

[Adam] We find the trade route,

we find the gold.

All along here is our family fishing sites.

[Narrator] On the road, just south of Seabird Island...

[Don] We're on a traditional trade route right now.

-Oh, you're talking way back. -[Don] Yeah.

[Narrator] ...Don is about to give Kru

a unique look into the past...

...to spot and identify

ancient paths through the wilderness.

From hunting and prospecting myself,

I've grown prideful of my way to read the land

and the environment and nature.

I look at game trails.

I didn't know anything about the trade routes.

What we're looking for on a traditional trade route

are indicators that we're on the right path.

You see the white rock up here?

You know you're on the right trade route

when you look up and you see that white face.

That's been there for thousands of years.

[Narrator] Trade routes have used landmarks as signposts

for generations of travellers.

Meanwhile, Adam is turning to the one person

that may shed light

on the clues from Amanda Charnley's interview.

[Adam] Don Waite

has been searching for the lost gold mine

since the 1960s.

He literally wrote the book.

It inspired me to go looking for the lost gold mine.

I first became aware of the Lost Creek Gold Mine

when I was a policeman.

It's a real good story.

Gold fever very much exists, yes.

[Adam] Through the years of researching for his book,

Don Waite built a trust

with the Katzie First Nations People,

where Slumach was from.

[Narrator] Those friendships

led to his interviews with Amanda Charnley.

[Waite] I never thought that, 45 years later,

what she told me

would be being pursued the way it is.

Slumach spent the night in the canyon

and slept on a mossy bench.

The rock was covered with a yellow-coloured moss.

Peeling the moss had yellow metal.

What I'm trying to figure out is

Amanda Charnley specifically says

"a certain canyon".

Where do we have to go to get to this certain canyon?

I don't even remember writing "certain canyon" down.

Well, do you have those notes?

Yeah, I've got them, yes.

You interviewed her in '74?

No, the first time was in '72.

There's another?

There's another set of notes, yes.

[Don] Where we're going on the Upper Pitt, Kru,

these are the things

that we need to keep our eyes open for.

[Narrator] Traditional trade routes

are a system of paths or "highways"

that have connected First Nations People

for thousands of years.

We're on the Sto:lo River.

To know where we're at,

we're looking for some more landmarks.

[Narrator] To find the trade route

where Slumach got his gold,

Kru must learn to read the land in a new way.

[Don] I want Kru to be in harmony with nature

and part of that learning

is understanding how alive it is--

what you can see with your physical eyes

and what you don't see with your spiritual eyes.

Not everybody's attuned to that.

That site over there was an old village site.

Take a look around, Kru,

and see if you can spot a line of defense.

Well, I see a boulder wall right there...

-Yes, you do! -...for reinforcements.

[Don] That's thousands of years old.

Those are all hand-laid.

So what may look like just a bunch of boulders...

Mm.

...are more than a bunch of boulders.

Wow.

[Don] A trade route might be invisible to most people.

The land tells a story--

if you know where to look.

It was almost like a spiritual lesson

being out there with Don.

At the end of the day,

if you don't know what you're looking for,

you're not going to find it.

This is where I file all my correspondence.

I had everything bound up into books.

[Adam] Don is the only person I know

that has kept records

of all of his communications since 1964.

Hard bound in books.

[chuckles]

[Narrator] According to Amanda Charnley,

Slumach helped guide men

travelling from Port Douglas to Pitt Lake.

As a reward, they told him where to find gold.

[Adam] Slumach travelled up a certain canyon

and found gold in a place covered with yellow moss.

We need to build on those clues

and figure out

which canyon and what clues to look for.

[Waite] Came from Port Douglas on horse.

They came down Patterson Creek,

off Glacier Lake...

Patterson Creek?

I've been searching in this area for over 15 years

and I've never heard of a place called Patterson Creek.

[Waite] Came down Patterson Creek,

off Glacier Lake...

Big question mark over where is Patterson Creek.

A lot of these locations are not on modern-day maps.

This is a 130-year-old creek that I've never seen on any map.

If Amanda Charnley's right,

and they came from Glacier Lake

to the Upper Pitt,

they would have crossed Snowcap Lake,

down to Iceworm Creek,

which is what I think she's calling Patterson Creek.

It connects. Look.

Upper Pitt,

Glacier Lake,

Port Douglas.

There's supposedly an old trail

that goes all the way from Iceworm Creek

right to the head of the lake.

I think we have to go to Iceworm Creek.

Not me.

You're not coming?

You! [laughs]

[Narrator] The search for Slumach's lost gold

has sent countless seasoned prospectors

scouring the Pitt Lake region.

To date, all have failed.

But will a new approach

and a well-laid plan

change the fortunes with this team?

What do we got here, Adam?

To me, this certain canyon that she describes

has to be Iceworm Creek.

And that's where we gotta go.

How're we gonna get there?

That's where the hard part comes in.

This expedition is

the most challenging

out of all the expeditions I've done.

We're talking, you know, kilometres of bushwhack.

The canyon that we're trying to get to

is a U-shaped valley

carved out

by thousands of years of glacial activity,

and creeks, run-offs, snowpack,

7000-foot peaks,

multiple ice fields.

It's not just a straight line.

This isn't just

throw on your hiking boots and go for a walk.

So how the heck are we gonna get in here?

Like, this is serious.

Where do we start?

[Adam] We'll take ATVs.

How are you gonna get ATVs all the way up here, man?

Barge 'em to the head of the lake.

Take this road as far as we can.

After the logging camp, then it gets a little sketchy.

It's terrifying

when you hear the mountain guide tell you it's gonna be sketchy.

When he starts talking about the terrain like that,

it just...

It just makes you think twice.

So, I mean,

if we're gonna follow Amanda Charnley's clues,

that's where we gotta go.

Let's not forget

this is all bear country in and out through here.

Big time.

All of this is bear country. Everything in through here.

You've got grizzly bear, elk, moose, deer...

That's a whole menu.

You mess around, you'll be on the menu, man.

Ya good? You wanna do this?

I'm good.

Something was off with him.

You know I hate talking about this

and it sucks.

Why?

Well, because it's not normal, you know,

and life, you're supposed to be normal.

After going through what I went through,

where do you go, who do you turn to?

Don's a great man.

His knowledge, his wisdom, his laughter.

Definitely had to talk to Don.

I kinda felt like he'd be the only one who'd understand.

We went up to the glacier...

...and you could, like, feel the essence,

you could feel the water.

It was special, you know?

[Don] Yeah.

But that night something happened.

I was chilling in my little tent on a glacier

and nothing out there.

That night, I had one of

the most vivid dreams in my entire life.

Like I could reach out and touch it, you know?

[Don] Yeah.

And then...

[sighs]

...all of a sudden, I feel a...

...on my lip.

It was cold, it was sandy,

paper, windblown.

Huh.

I felt it.

[Kru] It made the curse, like, legitimate.

Yeah, you could die next.

I don't even know about sharing it, to be honest, with you,

because I felt like I wasn't supposed to tell.

I felt like the kind of-- that's what the "shh" was,

but, like...

Well, a lot of people

that have gone looking for this motherlode

have not returned.

That press on your lips could have been "Shh.

It's time to listen, Kru.

Listen to what I'm going to tell you."

When it comes to the spiritual realm,

there are people that are afraid because they don't understand.

Nature would only come to you that way

if she felt you were ready for it,

so you want to make sure that your motives are true,

and that you're listening to and respecting Mother Nature

while you're out there.

When you relay back an experience

that's foreign to you,

but not foreign to someone else or their People,

it starts to make a little bit more sense.

Well, I appreciate you saying this.

It makes me feel a lot better,

because Google says a lot different,

I'll tell you that right now.

You'll be all right.

I believe in you.

There's definitely something going on out there

that is bigger than us all.

[Narrator] Does a hidden stream of gold nuggets

lie somewhere in the mountains above Pitt Lake?

And what awaits those brave enough to defy danger?

Those willing to separate truth from lore.

A couple of these.

Grilled chicken Pad Thai-- that doesn't sound too bad.

[Narrator] Riches beyond human imagination...

Beautiful!

All right, show time.

[Narrator] ...or a hundred-year-old curse?

[Narrator] At the head of Pitt Lake, British Columbia...

Adam, Kru, Taylor, and Don...

Pass me that rope.

[Narrator] ...begin the first leg

of their journey north...

Oh, yeah!

[Narrator] ...in search of Slumach's gold.

-Coming in hot. -Yeah.

There we are.

Good job!

Watch the ramps. There we go. We're good.

All right, ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls.

-Let's get the show on the road. -Yes!

We're going to follow up

what Amanda Charnley said in her interview.

I just can't wait to put it to test.

To see what's real and what isn't, right?

Get ready for the dust storm, guys.

[Taylor] I'm leading so I'm good.

[laughs]

[Narrator] Their route

has the team pushing 40 kilometres north

through a series of winding logging roads

to their final destination.

[Adam] I believe Amanda Charnley's clues

point to Iceworm Creek.

That's where we need to go.

Bear!

This is bear heaven, man.

Crazy.

[Kru] There's something really unique about the Pitt.

It's like the land that time forgot or something.

It's, like, Jurassic.

Everything's extra large there,

from the trees

to the wolverines and the bears and cougars.

So it makes sense, if everything's extra large,

there should be extra-large gold, too.

[Narrator] Only 10 kilometres in...

See how deep that goes?

[Taylor] It goes down a ways.

[Narrator] ...a recent landslide

has the only road through the Upper Pitt

completely washed out.

There's no easy way around this one.

I don't know, man.

Huge washout.

You hit that dead end, and what are you going to do?

Are you going to stop?

Or are you going to push through?

Can't get further with the ATVs,

so now we gotta walk it.

We gonna stash the bikes or what?

Yeah, where we do we put the bikes?

There's nobody up here.

Unless you're worried about a bear

riding your motorcycle away.

[Narrator] The route to Iceworm Creek

will have to be altered...

significantly.

Cutting through the bush will be more direct

but much tougher.

[Taylor] Come on. We're burning daylight.

[Don] I wish I clipped my toenails.

[Adam] This changes up the plan a little bit.

It kinda takes us into an area

where now we have to navigate past several valleys...

...to get to the river.

There's a lot of unknowns.

This will be a real test to the team.

Watch out for rocks.

[Taylor] Oof.

Clearing you a trail.

Oh, boy.

Hoo-wah!

It's a lot of bushwhacking, for sure.

Lots of bugs.

Ouch.

That bastard still got me.

[Taylor] That's gonna swing back.

[Don] Okay.

[Kru] Is there a reason you went that way,

or were you just not--

you just wanna go through all that?

[Adam] We hit kind of a thick bush section.

You get that debris,

the deadfall that you have to climb over.

You're literally like an animal

trying to find the easiest route.

[Don] Jeez Louise, take a chance, Don!

It literally makes travel probably, like, 100% slower.

[Taylor] Ooh. Ouch.

Hmm...

Just butt-scoot down. There you go.

[Taylor] Oh! [laughs]

Oh, I wish I could jump in there.

[Narrator] Second Canyon--

the first milestone on the trek to Iceworm Creek.

[Kru] That's a curse waiting to happen right there.

[Narrator] Here,

more than a century ago,

a devastating injury

ended Peter Pierre's search for Slumach's gold.

[Kru] That place where Pierre fell,

you could see why.

I mean, it's wild country.

Every rock out there is covered in algae,

soaking wet.

Insane.

All right, let's focus.

[Adam] The key is

Beautiful!

Something that's not slippery or full of algae or moss.

You got this, Don.

Whoo-hoo!

[Narrator] The next goal is Iceworm Creek--

if Adam's read on the clues is right.

Oh...

How much further?

Couple hundred metres.

Liar.

[Kru] We're almost there?

Yep.

You didn't say that "yep" very confidently.

[laughs]

Like "yeah, yeah."

To him, it's, "Oh, it's right there,"

and then next thing you know,

you've climbed over the top of a mountain.

I teach Outdoor Ed.

All right, who's going to lead us there?

I literally take kids hiking

and I teach them how to climb mountains.

[student] Have you found anything cool?

[Adam] Down here,

they found an old mine-cart wheel

from, like, 1897.

[Adam] I love the process

of a team trying to accomplish a goal.

You guys ready?

[student] Yup, I'm all ready, got my flashlight on.

-What is that? -It's a cave cricket.

The number-one skill that they can have?

Patience.

You have to be patient.

Pack up and let's get across this creek.

Shall we?

[laughing]

Yeah!

It's okay, I got a wetsuit for you.

Get across.

Just like I tell my kids--

"five more minutes, we'll be there."

[Adam] Only five more minutes, Kru.

What do you see down in there?

Anything?

[Taylor] Hey! There's something over here!

-Huh? -Right here.

It's a good thing we got that metal detector.

Oh, it's a chisel.

This is a miner's satchel.

And there's another...

There's the pick!

[Taylor] Hey! There's something over here!

[Narrator] Deep in the woods of the Upper Pitt...

[Taylor] There's a bag in the water!

[Narrator] ...the team has made a curious discovery.

Oh, it's a chisel!

This is a miner's satchel.

And there's another...

There's the pick!

All right, hold my arm.

A little further.

Just don't let me go.

Ooh! This is...

[laughs]

This is when they used to make quality.

This shows us that this is a route.

This is a trail.

There's gotta be a jar of gold somewhere

because this is open, too.

This is latch is broken.

Something happened to this guy.

Yup.

You don't leave this equipment behind, man.

God, I hate talking about the curse

because it starts to get too real,

but at the end of the day,

something happened to that person.

That's all I can say.

After the experience I had on that glacier,

the way I looked at everything changed.

You know you're being watched.

And that's something

that had never even really came into my mind before.

[Narrator] Following in the steps

of those who came before,

there's new confidence in the chosen path.

[Don] How does it look, Adam, on the map?

[Adam] Yeah, we're getting there.

Still a little bit, little ways to go.

It's good medicine right here,

spruce pitch,

also used as chewing gum.

That's what I was looking for.

It's good. It's good for the throat.

Oh, we got some...

some elk scat in here.

Obviously, we're in their home here, too.

[Adam] We actually picked up a pretty cool game trail

that we're just following.

[Don] Trade-route trails,

it was always based a lot

on the routes that the animals were taking.

There's some buck track here, Kru!

Let's follow where the bear's going,

let's follow where the elk are going.

They go to the water. That's a good sign.

We're getting close.

This is the creek?

It's Iceworm Creek!

[Narrator] At Iceworm Creek,

the team has come as far as Adam's maps can take them.

What do you think?

I wanna go up.

[Narrator] Now...

observation and intuition

must lead them to the old trade route,

the yellow moss

and the bench-shaped rock.

[Kru] I'm looking for the land to tell us the truth.

So, when the geology's lining up?

That's when I'm getting excited.

You see that quartz vein up there, right?

Yup.

A quartz vein is like finding a really good hot slot machine.

It means you've got really good odds to get gold.

We got the creek that's coming out.

We got the canyon.

Yep, got the canyon.

[Narrator] The creek,

a certain canyon--

Amanda Charnley's clues come to life

and are quickly falling into place.

Try to get into that.

See where the old growth is?

[Taylor] What I'm keeping in mind

is just remembering where my ancestors walked.

This is interesting.

You see, somebody carved out a foot hold.

Wow.

[Narrator] The hand-cut notch, carved to clear a pathway.

That was a big indicator to see that notch taken out.

It's probably about...

maybe 150 years old.

Yeah, see, this is a path, eh?

[Taylor] It looks like a perfect human walking trail.

[Adam] Yeah, this is more than a game trail.

A trade route would have went down there.

It just pops out like a sore thumb.

It seemed like everything was coming together

and everything was opening up for us--

almost like the land was giving it to us.

Wow, this is like a moss river out here.

As soon as we come around this corner,

it's all around us,

this yellow moss.

If that's the area Slumach was actually at,

I mean, we're hot on his heels.

[Taylor] This rusty sort of colour.

[Kru] It's awesome looking.

At that point in time,

I knew that we were actually part of history.

Holy, this looks really cool up here.

This is an old, old rock slide, eh?

Yeah.

-Oh, look at that eh? -Yeah.

I was just gonna hop down here and look in.

[Kru] Heard some stones move.

-You're kidding me. -Yeah, I'm down here.

[Kru] Is that you?

[Adam] She's, like, way down there.

[Kru] She's pretty brave.

This is a cave

caused by rocks resting on other rocks.

-Piece of quartz there. -Really?

[Taylor] Let me just...

Yeah, it's white.

Oh, shoot, I see it.

-Yeah, yeah, I see it from here. -Yeah, you see it?

This is what he was after.

There's something right above me here.

[Narrator] The team has trekked up the Pitt River,

past Iceworm Creek,

to an ancient trade route.

[Taylor] Yeah, it's white.

Yeah, yeah, I see it from here.

[Taylor] Yeah, you see it?

Pure white going across.

[Narrator] All clues lead here,

but could Slumach's lost gold...

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I see it.

[Narrator] ...be buried

under 20 feet of rock?

[Adam] If there's this massive quartz vein,

that's your first indicator for gold-bearing ore.

[Taylor] Here. Here you go.

[Adam] Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

-Hey, Kru? -Yeah?

There's a quartz vein in here.

That's where the main motherlodes are found.

Every time we get a quartz vein, I'm happy,

we're hot on the trail.

That's a legitimately huge quartz vein.

[Taylor] Oh, that was my shoulder.

Oh, I don't like the rocks, how they're placed like that.

This is rock fall.

Like, this is a boulder

on top of boulders on top of boulders.

[rocks shifting]

[Taylor] I can hear rocks shifting a little bit.

That's terrifying.

You could feel that ginormous fricking rock

about to shift and fall.

It could collapse and crush her,

or close that entrance,

I pulled the plug on that.

-All right, where are ya? -Right here.

Let's get out.

How was it?

A little claustrophobic, but...

Taylor's very brave

because I wouldn't go in that.

Wow!

The quartz vein showed me the geology in the area,

and it showed that

the veins are running through there.

That means that that--

-somewhere is up there. -Is up there, yeah.

-Mossy... -That, actually, wow!

We're under the rock, he was on top of the rock.

We need to check the top--

that could be the bench

where Slumach might have slept at.

[Taylor] What does it look like?

[Adam] A bench-shaped rock.

-Yeah? -Yeah.

Yeah!

This is exactly what Amanda Charnley described.

Slumach spent the night in the canyon

and slept on a mossy bench.

The rock was covered with a rust-coloured...

-[Adam] Moss. -Moss.

[Narrator] The mossy bench,

where Slumach peeled back moss,

and with his knife...

carved out pure gold.

Well, let's get to ripping some moss off these bad boys.

I'm gonna start with this one.

We had the right moss,

we had the right area

and it's the right geology.

So then I'm putting two to two together--

let's start ripping up some moss.

[Don] Any signs at all?

Well, not really.

Not at all I should say.

Natural placement fallen boulder.

-Yeah. -It's a rock.

[Taylor] But there's quartz sign here.

So we're in the right location,

-so... -Geologically speaking.

Yes.

We're in the right geological area,

the keys from the legend are adding up,

and now it's up to us

to figure out if this is it,

if it's true.

Easy!

Most accidents happen on the way down the summit, guys.

Oh! Don't say that.

[Taylor] I'm just thinking,

like, there has to be something more in this area...

...because these trade routes were highways, basically,

that our people used.

What do you see?

This looks like a pit house.

A pit house is a winter dwelling.

It's dug partly under the ground

so you stay warm in the winter.

[Narrator] Sunken into the earth,

the design of these structures

made clever use of the natural landscape.

As you look at sides here and here,

and at the back...

Perfect.

[Narrator] It is both a link to the past

and a present sign

that the team is on the right path.

Finding the pit house really brings the past to life.

This all feels very, very real.

Look at this over here.

[Taylor] Oh, my God.

Adam found a hole.

Dude! That's deep, man.

Pass me that headlamp.

I was kind of testing this hole out with my feet,

seeing if there's a bottom on it,

because it looked not natural,

and sure enough, I fell through.

You know, I went up to my waist.

I got so many bugs

down my pants and shirt right now.

As I was digging around,

I'm like, "Well, wait a minute,

this is not a hole, this is a cache.

So, if we're on a trade route,

there would be caches

where they would store tools, resources,

because they would always be passing back

and coming through the same route.

I just want to see what this is.

Just looks, like, an old axe or something.

What?

No, it's wood.

I got another sample I can grab up.

See if I can get it.

Just keep throwing any rocks up.

River... river rock.

It could have been a cache, but there's nothing left in it.

Kru pulls out his metal detector

and starts scanning the dirt we're pulling out of the cache.

[beeping]

[Kru] The metal detector's a game changer.

It's like having a dog in the woods,

you know what I mean?

[Adam] What will it detect?

[Kru] It'll detect iron content,

silver, gold, aluminum.

[beeping]

Ooh, what's that?

It's getting something pretty deep.

[Adam] Bull-- [bleep]

[Kru] Right there, right in the middle.

And it's a hot hit.

Ooh! Making my heart beat a little bit faster.

[Adam] How am I supposed to get that?

[Kru] Here, you want me to try?

Captain Canada?

Just hold my feet.

There might be some free gold on this rock.

Got another rock, too.

See if we can get anything on that.

All right, I'm gonna be

bringing out a couple loads here.

Nothing anymore.

It's that!

It's that...

That rock?

[Taylor] Yeah, right there in the middle.

Yeah, I got a lot of pyrite in here,

so it's the hot rocks we're getting hits on.

No, you're still getting more in here.

What is this?

Wow.

That's what I put in the pan.

Holy sh--

It's that!

It's that...

-That rock? -Yeah, right there.

It's the hot rocks we're getting hits on.

I just passed it to Don, like, "Check this out."

Thought it was, like,

an arrowhead or something like that.

That's what I saw and I put it in the pan.

Holy sh--

You know what it is? You know what it is?

Well, no.

Let me see!

Okay, you ready? You ready?

Here you go.

Shut the front door!

Oh, my God!

That's what we were hitting down there

that was metal.

I saw it, it looked weird, I put it in the pan,

it came up here...

Oh, my God!

Let me see it, let me see it.

Oh, my God, it's so old,

the wood's already worn away, man.

It's the one thing of Slumach's that we've actually heard of,

him using a pen knife and carving out gold.

So, to find an actual pen knife in that area, like...

Oh, man!

Oh, my gosh.

Something my grandfather had in the 1800s.

[Taylor] I couldn't believe it.

To be walking in the footsteps of where Slumach walked,

and then to find a pen knife?

[Kru] Oh, my God.

What if that was the one

that he used to carve the gold out?

We're actually looking at a piece of the story

in our hands.

Ho, ho!

[Adam] This links back exactly

to what Amanda Charnley was talking about.

This knife, in my mind, it could be Slumach's knife.

Nailed it.

As soon as I saw it, I went, no way.

-You nailed it. -No way.

That's impressive.

[Kru] This is bigger than all of us.

Thank God we have Don there to make sure

that we're doing things the right way.

It's important to listen

to what our ancestors have done in the past,

and today we listened to the stories.

We have to tread easy, take our time,

and do everything with respect.

And make sure that we don't leave here

without leaving something behind

'cause we took something very important--

it was very important to somebody--

and it could have been Slumach.

So, we have to give thanks and we just leave this behind.

[Narrator] Tobacco, sweetgrass and sage

offer respect and gratitude to those that came before.

All my relations.

Thank you for doing it the right way.

[Kru] We're in ancient lands.

It's like living in a storybook,

and it's coming to life in front of your eyes.

Like, it's magical.

To have the team come together to make it actually achievable.

What more could you ask for?

Whoo! Teamwork makes the dream work, huh?

[laughing]

[Narrator] In chasing the legend,

the team has uncovered new clues that point their quest forward.

Pieces of history,

fragments of fact,

a series of small steps,

pushing them closer to the truth...

[laughing]

... and possibly,

eventually,

the gold.

But the journey...

is just beginning.

This proves that we're going the right way.

This is the biggest puzzle piece

to the entire mystery of Slumach

that I have ever seen in real life.

We are part of the story now.

[Narrator] Next time on Deadman's Curse...

Do you like that?

That's a fricking glacier, man!

Imagine getting sucked down there.

That's a horrible way to go.

It's well over a hundred years old.

That could be Slumach's knife.

Damn!

We've got to get down in that.

Dude, I think that's far enough.

[crash]

My back is feeling it.

What's this up here?

[Adam] I'll get closer.

Looks like a mine in the side of a mountain.

-Right there! -Right there.