01x11 - Full Disclosure

[bunniefuu]

In the last mining season

Six down on their luck men from the
lower 48 ventured to Alaska to find gold.

I'll be down in a f*ck minute.

They spent a quarter of a million dollars.

Where is the gold?

Aw frig.

But got less than $20,000 worth
of gold before the Alaskan winter

Back up.

Froze them out.

I lost the first battle.

Now the crew relives the experience.

This was the summer from hell.

What went wrong?

There was no plan.

Why they left Alaska with
only 14 ounces of gold.

It was chaos.

And how bad things really got on the claim.

I was considering beating
the crap out of Dorsey.

The rookie miners reveal the untold
stories of Porcupine Creek.

Are we gonna talk about that?

Never before seen footage reveals what really
happened deep in the Alaskan wilderness.

And the Hoffmans lay out a plan.

I really think we can do it this year.

To right the wrongs of the past.

And visit a claim deep in the Yukon.

It's all virgin, from here on up.

But this time, they know what they are doing.

This is double or nothing.
Success is the only option.

Way before the mining season started,
in footage that's never been seen before,
Todd and Jack Hoffman recruited a bunch
of friends to go gold mining in Alaska.

You guys know that I've been
talking about this for a long time.

I've begged, borrowing and stealing the
money to put this thing together.

I'm trying to put all this together, you know,
and we're sh**ting this, this frigging TV
show now, and all of that that goes on.

And I'm trying to talk these
guys into coming on.

You guys, are the guys, that I believe
can help us pull this thing off.

We traveled all around Alaska.

We looked at many claims,
and it's a good claim.

I need to know if you're in.

And I don't mean kinda in.
You gotta be in all the way or you're out.

Corey?

Well it sure all is inspirational, what the heck.

I don't uh, I don't think I'm in.

It's not for everybody.

It is not for everybody.

Just can't, can't roll the dice
right now. It's k*lling me though.

Dorsey.

There were no contracts, but at that point,
it's one of the best..scenarios
that I can, I can imagine.

I'm on food stamps.
I can't afford to fix my tooth.

I mean, it's ridiculous.
So, of course I'm in man.

I was excited, I was, I was optimistic. Um you know.
Here's a chance. Here's an opportunity.
There's nothing else going on.

My purpose for going is cause, I'm a
construction superintendent here,
and there's no construction going on.

Uh huh.

So my family's also on food stamps,
and we're barely making it, and this
is a way to make a living.

Man, I appreciate it and.
It's gonna be a good time.
I hope we make it.

I had to take a gamble. I was uh

close to bankruptcy. I'd lost
everything because of my health.

I had to close a business down.
I was just at the end of my rope.

You know my story Todd.

I know that your, your back is screwed up,
you know. I know your financial situation and

Hopefully it'll pull it all together for you.

I'll do whatever you need me to do.

Just no work. There's nothing out there.

Todd called, and asked if I wanted
to go gold mining in the...

Couldn't pass up the opportunity.

None of these guys went down
the primrose path with the Hoffmans.

They went as men.

Laying their futures on the line,
the crew hit the road.


they hit their first real test.

When Todd had to drive the 400
excavator through the Klahini river.

Here we go. Here we go.

It's glacial melt. It's fast flowing.
It's very very dangerous.
I was pretty nervous.

Raise. Raise raise raise.

I had been warned ahead to
watch out for sinkholes.

You hit sand that was over a piece of ice
that is now melted and now it just
got water holding that up.

And you can go across and hit these
sinkholes and, and go out of sight.

At the end, I could see this
one that was really deep.

Hey Todd. I think this is probably
the worst place to come across
right here.. It's pretty deep.

So my dad radios, I'm just like,
Ah. I just need to get this across.
I just want out of this friggen river.

He didn't pay attention,
and I knew it was gonna go in.

Here we go. Here we go.

Whoa.

Unhook the gator!

He needed his bucket to push himself up.

But, I got this stinking
gator hanging off of it.

Unhook the gator.

Hurry up. UNHOOK THE GATOR NOW.

He was yelling at me to get the gator off,
get the gator off, get the. He's panicked.

UNHOOK THE GATOR NOW.

Losing the 400 would have
meant the end of the season.

He was truly upset.

-Come on, stop.
-Hurry up!

-Unhook it.
-I will.

I'm the old guy, you know. I move slow.
My legs move slow, you know.

But, we got the gator off.
And he stuck the bucket in.

Ready?

Hang on.

I'm getting deeper and deeper and
I'm like uh oh. This isn't good.

Finally, I started climbing back out of there.

Keep going. Keep going.

Stand back. Its going.

Dig. Dig.

Dig.

You got it.

[cheering]

Truly, if we had of lost a track on that 400, or if
it would have gotten stuck in another way,
we'd have been, we'd have been done.

If I were to go across the river
again, I would not have the gator.

He needs to listen.

Yeah, it was a little sketchy but we made it
across, and then all's I'm thinking is, okay.

The camera crew's stuck
back there on some island.

These guys are straight city slickers and
they see the water coming up and
they're starting to freak out.

The 400 is there.

This river is here.

And we..are here.
Aha ha ha ha.

They're from London.

[Laughs]

My dad's yelling at me to go back.
You can't hear A..

The camera crew guy,
He's screaming at me to come back.

Put your big boy panties on and just wade
across there. That's what I'm thinking you know.

But uh,

Then we went back and got 'em.

I would cross right up through there,
up to this side over here.

If you want a ride,
you'd better get on.

Let's go guys. Hurry up. Hurry up.

Getting up there.

-Good, good.
-Ya ha.

[Laughing and cheering]

People were upset that we crossed that river.

And they don't understand. I had a permit.

I did not crush fish beds
or anything like that.

It was a great place to cross.

Finally, after months of preparation, the crew
made it to the claim on Porcupine Creek.

To actually get there, after all the stuff
that we had done for the last year.

[Exhales] It was kind of emotional.

I got out.

They kept driving and left me there.

So I had to walk, like a mile,
not knowing where we were gonna be.

And the beauty is just insane.

Like being on another planet.

Like an extreme sense of freedom.

There's not even any kind of smell of car
exhaust or anything out here. It's beautiful.

Ha ha ha ha ha. Oh h*.

Whoo.

-Alright man
-Clean it later.

This is nuts..

We've never seen anything like this before.

We did it. we did it. We did it.

-Did it.
-Todd?

Get up buddy. Yeeah.

[chatter]

Say guys, hey.

This is the opportunity that we've
all been talking about. We're
gonna take it right here.

We're gonna make it.

When Jack made his speech, I mean it was
just like a, the hair on the back of my
neck stood up and I got the chills.

You're all millionaires. The only thing
is, you gotta get it out of the ground.

I was a little shocked actually. Jack said
that we're all gonna be millionaires.
I was, did a double take.

That's the whole key so, you know.
You work hard, you're gonna get paid.

I just realized that, this could be
something that changes the rest of my life.

I could come back with enough
money to get my back fixed.

Be completely out of pain.

This is crazy.

It was ah, very emotional.

I didn't realize until we actually
started doing it, how hard it would be.

I had no idea what was coming up.

Up ahead.

She's bleeding.

The shaking and the tremors.

She'd stopped breathing.

The full story behind the mine's darkest hour.

Everything just went Click.
I'm dead. I'm done.

How gold fever drove
Jimmy Dorsey to the edge.

I've been here for 3 months
without any f*ck money.

There's no gold.

There's nothing.

And Todd reveals his game changing
plan for the next mining season.

We're gonna go north from Porcupine.
There's some secret mine.

We're gonna get gold.

Todd Hoffman and his crew of rookie miners
quickly made a new home for themselves
in the Alaskan wilderness.

I'm super excited cause all our stuff's here.

We're ready to rock.

But after building their camp,,
they got a harsh reality check from
neighboring miner, John Schnabel.

-Todd.
-I'm John.
-Good to meet you John.

That's what you get down at the bottom.

Schnabel basically shows us nuggets that
dame from our creek that we're mining on.

It's exciting to me, because
we know it's there.

That is awesome.

Then it depressed me when he told me that
he had dug in this one hole for 2 years.

See in the area of that hill there.
We went down 100 feet to the bottom.

It took us 2 years to get the heavy gold.

It took him $200,000 dollars and a
couple years to dig his hole out.

And we're gonna have to set up everything.

In one summer.

Other people have come here.
They've all gone with nothing.

-Nah?
-Not a one of them survived.

No.

When we left John Schnabel,
we realized that we were in trouble.

I don't get depressed, but if you
want to call it, that's as close
to depressed as I get.

It became apparent that striking it
rich in the Alaskan wilderness was
not going to be easy.

The rookie miners first built their wash plant.

I didn't find out how any of this stuff
even went together until we got it up
there and started putting it together.

I think it's gonna work, cause we're
all just crazy enough to hope so.

A month behind schedule,
the crew started running dirt.

First day of mining you know, this is fantastic.

But just as they got underway.

Let's go.

Disaster struck.

I heard somebody screaming that,
something happened to Olivia.

And so I just run.

First guys on the scene
were the TV crew.

I get there. I saw cameras
laying on the ground.

She's foaming at the mouth.
She's bit her lip, and she's bleeding. and

And I can see her little
hand doing this, you know.

She was having a seizure because
of the shaking and the tremors.

I'm just, I'm trying to
make sure she's breathing.

Cause her jaw was clenched so tight.

She was unresponsive.
Her eyes were unresponsive.
Her just, just everything.

I'm like, we got to get her help, now.

Go. Go. Go.

We drive like hell.

Get her, Try to get her into town.

The doctor yelled out that
she'd stopped breathing.

I think my heart broke, right then.

Everything just went like Click.
I'm dead. I'm done.

She finally stabilized enough that they
said that we're gonna fly her to
uh, LifeFly her to Anchorage.

They do a whole battery of tests
on her there at the hospital.

And they can't really find anything.

When I found out she was gonna
be okay, it was just incredible.

-Hi baby.
-Daddy.

How you feeling?

Unless you've gone through something
like that, you just don't know.

Tiger. Farwee.

Sorry 'bout all this hon.

I watched my little girl there and I
look back and I say Hey, you know.

Was I responsible for any of this?

You know I had a few different regrets. But, I'm
gonna have my family up there next season.

Up ahead.

James Harness is forced to go
off painkillers cold turkey.

You never figure you'll go through,
huh, anything like that yourself.

His body gives out.

I had this fear go through me. Is
I'm gonna be stuck here for sure.

And Jimmy Dorsey's frustration boils over.

Todd Hoffman has let me down.
Of course he has.

We're gonna get it done in 72 hours,
or I'm waking away.

After 8 weeks of backbreaking work, and almost
$200,000 dollars, Todd Hoffman and his crew
of rookie miners still haven't found any gold.

The pressure was mounting.

Put it back. We're going to run.
You saw us getting ready. Been
getting ready for 3 hours.

And right when they needed it most,
the crew lost the key piece of their wash plant.

The shaker basically, destroyed itself.

My heat sunk because there was just so much
damage. It needed to be completely rebuilt.

The shaker needed hundreds of welds to it's
frame before the team could mine again.

I gotta send Harness down
there to fix up the shaker.

The thing is, Harness got degenerative discs
in his back. He has plates in both ankles.

You can imagine the stress I have.

You're in a pretzel position for hours and when
you have muscle spasms pulling your spine in
different directions you get pinched nerves.

He having to live his life on morphine.

Every day is a battle, for James.

Some people have been unkind, calling him
morphine addict and all this kind of stuff but.

You know, he would much rather
have it uh, taken care of.


the shaker still in pieces, Harness's
morphine prescription ran out.

It's horrible you know. You see movies about
people uh, who were drug addicts on heroin
and stuff going through withdrawal.

[heavy sigh] Stuff like that.

[voice quavering]

And uh, you never figure you'll go
through, a huh, anythingf like that yourself.

James was in trouble, but, he was willing
to go ahead and, you know, and work.

I couldn't let 'em down.

Then Dorsey cut the exit tube to the jig.

This is just common sense.

No, this sand that we got. We ran this
on the table, there was no gold in it.

This is just basic plumbing.

This is basic plumbing.

So Harness has to go down
there and, tighten things up.

Harness, you can't stop him but, seeing
him down there struggling and getting
around I really got mad at Todd.

I said "Todd. What in the hell is he
doing down there in that hole".

Easy. Easy.

And then like [snap].
Boom. Down he goes.

James has fallen.

I had this fear go through me.
Is I'm gonna be stuck here for sure.

Hang on James.

Yeah, my legs are shot.

It's kinda scary because you don't know if
your legs are gonna come back. You don't
know if you're gonna get out of the hole.

Eek. And it just kinda puts you in shock.

All these bad feelings started come at me,
and I knew I had to get out of there.

You hold on I'll pull you up.

Ah.

Got down there anyway.

-Something pop?
-Yeah.

There we go.

-Oh, I got you.
-[gasping in pain]

I spent the next



With every single muscle in
my leg and feet cramped.

I was able to get him some more medicine
and have, have it sent up to Alaska.

Todd, went the extra mile.

I was, I couldn't believe it.

You are the friggen best mechanic in the world.

You guys are like family, and I
don't want to let you down.

You won't let us down,
and you never have.

Finally

We regrouped and went back.

Just pushed as hard as I could.

Get this thing back together and start rocking.

Was just driving myself to a point where

I even got the go.

And I proved I could.

Oh, ah.

And he gets it done.

He's just friggen awesome.

We're mining tomorrow.

Good job, man.

But after months of mining, without finding gold,
and without getting paid a cent, Realtor Jimmy
Dorsey eventually lost faith in the dream.

I've given Todd Hoffman 5 months
of my life and he's let me down.

In every way. There's no gold.
There's no promise. There's no, uh

He's been a terrible leader.
He hasn't listened to me.
He's treated me like a, a child.

He's been a terrible leader.
He hasn't listened to me.
He's treated me like a, a child.

Um. He's demeaned me in front of National TV.

International TV, I mean. the

Todd Hoffman, um

I don't have much respect for him.

You know people say we bullied him,
and this and that and the other and
he just decided that um, you know.

He was going to do his own thing.
And you just can't do that.

Dorsey? Absolutely a likeable guy. Funny.

Is he your gold mining partner?

I don't think so.

I don't mean this in a mean
way but I don't think

Jimmy really had a mechanical sense.

Get off. Whoa. Whoa.

He was out of his element.

Stop. Stop.

My god. I just want to sh**t him.

And when it's the same person making the
same mistake, the seriousness goes up.

There's one mistake we been making, which is
not getting crap done because you're so
focused on safety all the damn time.

Somehow, he's not k*lled himself.
He's gonna do one of us in.

We had lost faith in Dorsey.

He said he wanted to be a team player,
but he really didn't know what that meant.

Frustrated with the lack of progress,
Dorsey threatened to leave.

We're gonna get it done in 72 hours or I'm
walking away cause I have no more money.

Then I'm walking off of here.
I'm going downtown.
I'm gonna get a job.

I'm serious about that.

You just walk away every
time you have a problem.

Don't give me that sh*t. Come on.
Whose team are you on anyway?

I'm on your team.

He just wasn't happy there.
And so, he just, he starts losing it.

Up ahead.

I've been here for 3 months
without any f*ck money.

Dude. You wanna go. f*ck go.

This crew reveals how the drama on
the claim reached a boiling point.

This is serious.

I was considering beating the
holy crap out of Dorsey.

And exploded into a fist fight.

He put his hands on the wrong
guy for the last time.

He hit him first. And we're going to the
police first. So you're not gonna stop us..

I'm going to the hospital.

Are we going to talk about that?

Uh, I don't know.
-Are you showing it?

By mid August, with no payday in sight,
Realtor Jimmy Dorsey was ready to blow.

Whether it was money, or just the stress of
being up in Alaska, you know.
I don't know what it was.

It was, it was just building and building.

He pushed all the wrong buttons
in all the wrong people.

Me, Greg, Todd, were so mad at him
by this time, I was considering
beating the holy crap out of Dorsey.

Hey Jim. What are you doing?

Getting this rock out of here.
What are you doing?

I'm gonna pull this thing out.
Let's go ahead and put the jig
down where it's supposed to be.

Then I'll be, you know. Watch me
work, faster than anyone else.

Thurber's a pretty patient guy.
He doesn't, he has a long fuse.

Dude. You're f*ck psychotic.

I am. Cause I been here for three
months without making any f*ck money.

Don't talk to me.

When I blew up, trust me.
I didn't feel good about it.

Dude. You wanna go. f*ck go.

Lost all composure.

You and I. You wanna do it? Well f*ck do it.
Then you'll learn to shut your f*ck
mouth, and make some sense.

He'd taken me to where I didn't want to go.

I'm not gonna put up with it. Just stop it.

You'll drive yourself f*ck nuts.

I am going nuts.

Well, that's obvious.

I am totally going

I'm coming apart up here.

I think he had had it.
He was fed up.
So, he needed a way out.

And he opened the door the hard way.

Basically, he put his hands on
the wrong guy, for the last time.

By the time I got over there,
they were, they were in a fight.

I just unleashed on him.

I wasn't gonna take it.

After the fight, the cameras caught up with
the Dorseys just as they left the claim.

-No, we're not going..
-Gotta come with you.
We gotta come with you.

-to the police.
-What's going on ma'am.

Say that..He hit him first. And we're going to the police first. So you're not gonna stop us.

I'm going to the hospital.
Make sure my ribs aren't broken,

And we're pressing charges.

Okay. You're getting in
the car. May I come in?

-Thanks.
-We're getting in the car with you.
We're not gonna slow you down. I promise.

We are definitely not ever coming back.

Don't want anything to do with them.

It was time for them to leave.

You know, There was just, the only thing
was happening was his straight negativity.

What a waste of time that is.
What a waste of my time.

It was a, a dark pit, is what it was.
I'm just really glad to be leaving.

Really glad to be leaving.

By this time, uh, people's taste of Dorth,
of Dorsey in their mouth was, was sour.

I think we need to rebuild this
little area of town over here.

The rest of the crew decided they no
longer had any need for Dorsey's cabin.

-Got a little diesel?
-Got a little bit.

Are we gonna talk about that?

Are you showing it?

This is gonna be fun.

What did Todd say.

We got to get rid of this piece of crap.

[laughter]

We lit it on fire.

Ha ha ha ha ha.

You know I don't really care to have
somebody gloat over somebody's ill fortune.

I just didn't want to stand
around and watch that go on.

They just want it gone.

And so, I basically walked over with
the 400 and tore the place down.

It gave me no great joy.

Basically, it was an end to the situation.

Almost immediately, Dorsey was
replaced by another controversial figure.

Dakota Fred.

Dorsey just left.

You know. And he, and
here we got Fred in there.

To guarantee his share of the gold,
the claim owner sent in his own man
to whip the Hoffman crew into shape.

I want to do what's right, for the owner, Earl.

I liked the guy.

But I forgot to put in his, in his memo
"Hey. Don't mess with James".

Then Fred blew a hose
on the excavator bucket.

Todd, Todd, Todd.

Since I broke it, I was gonna fix it.

James came.

He hammered on that so much, it looked
to me like the threads were messed up.

I had pretty much had it with Fred
at that point. I wasn't doing
it right, in his opinion.

It's my choice to do it the way I
want to do it. He wouldn't let it go.

He wouldn't go off and do something else.

Think you could roll that in?

I would have already if I could.
You want to do this?

Sure.

I took the hammer.
Just called his bluff.

That's like giving me the middle finger.

The next thing I know,
he is exploding behind me.

You're messing with the threads down there.

You're messing with me. And you're
about to get a hammer in your a*s.

Oh sweet. That'd feel so good.

He wants to shove that ball pein hammer
where the sun don't shine on Fred.

That's...not good.

You been in my way since I started.
Now just f*ck off and don't argue with me.

Ha. I wish that had gone on camera week.

Sitting there beating on the thread.

Don't argue with me.

-Don't
-I said
-Don't push him.

Don't push anybody.

You're messing the threads up.

-Okay. Okay.
-Cause your f*ck
nose is in my way.

-Get out of my way.
-Hey hey hey. Let's walk.

-Let's take a walk.
-I just asked you to roll it in.

You know what. I'll roll something in.

No no no no no.

James. Stop.

James. Come here.

He was fortunate that the fellows
came between the two us.

Granted, the man may be in pain.

But, it's not a safe situation whatever.

To have a man that is on heavy
medication on your worksite.

He wouldn't give me that respect to say
"Okay, I know you're in a lot of pain.
I'm not gonna push your buttons".

As far as working with James again, um,
I would not work with him, directly.

I think I'll step out on a limb.

James didn't send Fred a , a Christmas
card this year, I'll guarantee you that.

Ha ha ha a ha.

Whooo.

Yeah baby.

Up ahead.

The Hoffmans head north in the dead of winter
to find a new location for their big comeback.

This is drop dead k*ller claim.

The crew gathers back in the
lower 48 to discuss the future.

My heart's there. I want to go.

And Fred, throws in a curve ball, that could
change the entire mining operation, next season.

I'm gonna bring my own crew.

Right when I just started liking you Fred,
you go and do stuff like this.

In the quest for gold, Jack Hoffman
chose a high risk strategy.

Dig where he hoped gold had collected,
under an ancient waterfall. All he had to
do, was find what is called the glory hole.

From the start of this whole expedition
has been the talk of a glory hole

Where is it? Oh, I know
right where it is, kinda.

I'm seeing some little specks.

Jack based his search for the million dollar
glory hole on advice from the claim owner, Earl.

You know, it's folklore.

There's a waterfall, right here.
Who the frig knows.

Got a hole, and I tested it,
and I got gold.

So I finally went for it.

The first few weeks of digging weren't promising.

They didn't have

Oatmeal size gold. It was...just dust.

But Jack was convinced he was on the gold.

We needed to go for the depth.
We had to go down.

Jack was just digging.
Jack is digging. Where's Jack.

He's digging.

And I went down another 30 feet.

The next time I went down there, it was
like the size of a football stadium.

What's to say that that bottom
of that waterfall wasn't 300 feet.

We were chasing dreams.

We don't know how deep
that bedrock is down there.

By mid September, 4 months after
they started, Jack hit 50 feet.

And the dream
suddenly looked like a reality.

We got our first real nugget.

That was just awesome.

[cheering]

No one, ever, in the history of
mankind has been to this bedrock.

We're gonna be the first.

We're just seeing more gold
line up in that sluice box.

[cheering]

But they were still $260,000 dollars in debt.

Now we got the weather moving in overhead.

Finally I reached 75 feet.

Then I got bedrock, just that last little bit.

Next bucket. It's gotta be the next bucket.

It's gotta be.

Then, in early October, the big freeze hit.

Overnight, they were frozen
out of Porcupine Creek.

After 5 months in Alaska, $275,000 dollars, and
thousands of tons of dirt, the Hoffman crew
produced less than $20,000 worth of gold.



Pitiful. He he. There's no reason they couldn't
had 80 to 100 ounces out of that whole season.

Supposedly there's 15 million dollars worth of gold
about right, basically where we're digging.

You know. Did I screw up?
Did I screw us up?

If you think you just gonna go up there and
dig the gold out of the ground real simply,
you know, it doesn't happen quite that way.

I don't think that Jack knew any better
where to dig than any of the rest of us.

It would have been great to come home with a dump-truck
full of gold, but that's kinda unrealistic for a bunch of
guys who didn't even know what they were doing.

One other dream shot down.

Ta hum.

Three months after their failed mining season,
the Hoffmans are home in Oregon, trying
to put their lives back together.

Dad I feel really bad. I screwed up a
bunch of things this last year so.

This next season we needed new equipment.
I need a new wash plant. And I gotta bring in
somebody who knows what the frick they're doing.

Yeah.

I might be able to scrape enough money
together to do it one more time.

The rest of the crew struggles to get by.

Right now there's no steady jobs out there.

It's pretty bleak.

So I'm doing what I gotta do.

My family really suffered while I was gone,
so I gotta scrimp and save where ever I can.

I know for a fact I can't put myself
through what I went through last year.

Ah, it's gotta be different and,
I don't know what I'm gonna do.

The next mining season is 2 months away.
This time, the Hoffmans are planning to do it right.

Come on guys, move. h*.

-Whoo.
-Yeah baby..

They're lining up bigger and better equipment.

This is one friggen bad boy.

I'd like this truck.
The thing is, I need a deal.

But even with their super size plans,
the Hoffmans still have to convince
their crew to risk it all in Alaska. Again.

The main thing for next year guys, is we gotta,
we gotta come in with better equipment.

And I know a lot of that falls on my, my head.
I'm gonna go out and see if I can get an investor
or figure out how I can get the cash.

If I can, we're gonna come
in with some better stuff.

I really think we can do it this year.
We have to do it this year.

Who's in?

I need it, and uh, my family needs it.

Yeah, I'd like to throw in.

Dream's still there. I'm going.

I want to be there with you guys.

But Dakota Fred drops a bombshell.

I personally would like to work the Porcupine
claim, by myself with my own crew.

Right when I, right when I just started liking
you Fred, you go and do stuff like this.

-Well, I understand

-A few guys at this table are real pissed off.

-I noticed they're all big,
they're all big boys here.

-You're throwing the gauntlet down.

Todd, we're not gonna take this.

We'll talk about it later,in private.
Not in front of the guy.

One way or the other

I'm gonna be at Porcupine Creek next year.

Fred wants our claim. And I don't think
he wants to pay anything for it either.

Todd suspects that Fred has been
working on a deal behind his back,
to take Porcupine Creek for himself.

We'll talk about it.

The Hoffmans could lose the mine, and the
millions in gold that they believe is
still buried at Porcupine Creek.

The future of Porcupine Creek, is in doubt.

Todd Hoffman has to consider other options.

I know you want to go back to Porcupine dad.

You know and I know.

I found it. It's there. And it's
bucketfuls of it. So, you know.

I tell you what.
I know we're all set up.
I get it.

It's just I worked my heart out.

I know. I know. And I
don't want to go set up
something new either man.

Well, I know.

I think we ought to go look north.
I think there's other places.

Well, you know. If we're gonna go,
We gotta do it pretty quick.

I, I'm willing to try.

Todd and Jack are heading 400 miles north
of Porcupine Creek, into the Yukon
to look at new gold mining claims.

-That's it man. That's the
end of the Dalton Trail.
-Yeah.

That is where the gold rush is landing

So. If we're gonna cut a deal, we gotta do it.
We gotta try to cut a deal while we're up there.

-You're right.
-Okay?
-You're right. Yeah.

Alright. Let's do it.
-Let's head out.

We're going north.

We gotta get up there quick.

We gotta find a claim.

I gotta cut a deal with the owner, and lock it in.

Success is the only option this year.
This is double or nothing.

Their destination is the Klondike, home to
some of the richest gold fields on earth.

The Hoffmans have come to meet some
local miners who know the area.

-Are you Marcel?
-Todd. How are you doing?

I'm doing good, man.

Ah. Oh.

Well, basically we're looking for a good
mine, and trying to find a claim.

And everybody said you're the man.

A lot of people have come
and gone from Dawson.

They think they're gonna dig a hole,
and they're gonna get rich.

Uh, that's not how it works.

There is one guy.

-I'm gonna go look him up for you,
-Okay.

And I'll let him know, that you're interested.

Good. I'd appreciate it cause basically
I know basically nobody here in town, so.

Yeak. It's gonna be tough.

I'm getting that, yeah.

Okay.

By next morning, Todd and
Jack have several leads.

Oh, ah.

Outside, it's 40 below zero.

And the roads are buried
beneath four feet of snow.

But, all the good claims seem to have been taken.

Frigg.

It isn't virgin ground.
I think we're wasting our time today.

If we can't find a good claim
here in the Klondike, that's it.

The dream is over.

After 3 days of searching,
Todd is almost out of options.

The Hoffmans reach out to an
old mining buddy of Jack's.

Klondike Steve is their last chance.

So this is Klondike gold?

-Yeah.
[CLUNK]
-Holy crap.

Nice, huh?

Look at that big guy.

That's different than what we been getting.

Really.

Klondike Steve has agreed to show
the Hoffmans one of his 50 claims.

Well this is it for us, man. This is probably our
last hurrah. We got to make it work, so.

Do or die type thing, you know.

You've come to the right place.

Out of all 50 claims, why this one.

Special property. It's all virgin ground.
Never been worked with machinery.

Right there we found 50 million ounces.

Really?

Where does your claim start?

Think we're coming up on it.

Okay. We're on the property here now.
That's Ready Bullion Creek.

That's really nuggety nice coarse
gold along this hillside.

Virgin ground that way.

-Alright,
-So all that?
-Start mining.

-All virgin from here on up?
-Yup.

Our dreams start at that line,
and move right up this valley.

You're probably getting a lot of phone
calls on this place. I get that.
We got a major gold rush going on.

But I'm hoping that we can
put a deal together on this.

We gotta make it work.
Gotta make it work.

I still don't want to walk away from Porcupine.

Cause I'm sitting right on a bucket of gold.

But this right here. This is
drop dead k*ller claim, you know.

This is it. This is the place whe,
we're supposed to be.

If we're gonna mine,
our future starts right here.

But the Hoffmans still have to strike a
deal before they can mine the new claim.

Jack and Todd are good guys, but I'm a
business man, and good guys don't
necessarily bring in the cash.

Mining this far north is tough.
The ground is frozen, and the season is short.

But with giant nuggets hidden in the
permafrost, the rewards could be huge.

We're gonna need a minimum of

I honestly don't know if I can do it. So

We're gonna friggen find out.