Narrator:
Six down-on-their-luck men
from the lower 48 states
risked everything
to find gold on a small claim
in southeast Alaska.
Where is the gold?
Narrator:
After 4 1/2 months of mining...
Todd: Holy [bleep]
...they're finally
finding gold.
Whoo-hoo!
We got our first real nugget.
Man: That's it.
Narrator: But it may be
too little, too late.
We're pretty much up the creek
without a paddle.
Narrator: They've sunk almost
$275,000 into the ground
for only $8,000 worth of gold.
Quite possibly,
I could lose my house.
Narrator: With the harsh Alaskan
winter banging on the door...
[bleep]
[bleep]
...the crew is
at their breaking point.
Back up.
Just back off a little bit.
And plummeting temperatures
wreak havoc
on the mining equipment.
Harness: I think it's froze.
We've got winter already.
[spits]
The answer to their prayers
could lie at the bottom
of a 50-foot hole
if they can get there
before the deep freeze.
We're going
right to the bitter end.
[ bird cawing ]
Narrator: It's mid-September,
and winter is coming
to the gold fields of Alaska.
What do you got,
Thurb?
The salmon return to spawn
before the big freeze.
Remsburg:
Nice one, Todd.
Nearly out of money,
Todd Hoffman and his mining crew
hit the river
to catch a free meal.
- There's one.
- Look at that color on him.
Wow.
But Alaska never gives
anything away
without a fight.
What do you got?
Oh, trouble.
Remsburg: Dude,
do you see him?
- Yeah.
He's coming pretty quick,
like he knows.
He's about
a 500-, 600-pounder.
That's a dangerous situation
right there.
Yeah, we're not gonna push
the issue with him,
but if it's me or that bear,
that bear's a dead bear.
What the heck?
Did I see water spraying up?
Oh, there's another one.
Narrator: The bears are
fattening up on the salmon
for the long
winter hibernation.
Greg, you want
to grab the cooler?
They're working
their way down here.
Let's get out of here.
Narrator:
As Alaska braces for winter,
most gold mines are closed.
The Hoffmans' claim
is still open.
The crew of six has been digging
for gold for over four months.
They can't stop now.
If I don't get gold, I'm going
back home with nothing.
Narrator:
After endless breakdowns,
their homemade wash plant
is running
over 1,000 tons of gold-bearing
dirt every day.
Now we're rocking and rolling.
Narrator: They're hoping
they've captured gold
in hundreds of buckets
of black sand.
This thing weighs a ton.
It must be full of gold.
Narrator: But they're pinning
all their hopes
on finding the big gold nuggets
deep down on the bedrock.
Jack: We're only about 20 feet
from hitting really good gold.
Narrator: Now greenhorn miner
Todd Hoffman is confident
he's closing in
on a $15 million fortune.
Right here's where we're trying
to get below these big boulders.
See the rock
underneath my dad's track?
Then you'll see
a brown line there, okay?
From that brown line down,
it's all virgin ground.
Narrator:
The crew has been digging
on what they think is the site
of an ancient waterfall.
As they got deeper and deeper,
they found more and more gold
in deposits,
known as pay streets.
But the take so far
is small change
in comparison to the big gold
the Hoffmans believe
is sitting on the bedrock,
at the bottom of what miners
call a glory hole.
The dirt they dig
out of the glory hole
is taken over to their wash
plant in a secondhand loader.
This is only a 1973.
We're a little bit
past our warranty.
Narrator:
The old loader delivers the dirt
to the front of the wash plant
to be processed for gold.
Then the loader goes
around the back
to move the waste rocks
pouring out of the other end.
Without that loader
bringing material,
without hauling away
the processed material
that we don't need,
everything will back up,
and I'll get overran with
material, and they'll run out.
Narrator:
To keep the operation running,
the 37-year-old loader
has to work continuously.
But it struggles to keep up with
the wash plant's mighty hunger.
[bleep]
Messed up!
I need some material!
Narrator:
After months of hard labor,
the old workhorse
is finally worn out.
The cab started filling
with smoke.
And I looked over, and all my
electrical wires were burning.
You can see that's just fried.
[sighs] Every machine
we have, we need.
But this is one of the worst
to have a problem with
because it does all the moving
of the material.
Narrator:
The old, tired equipment
cannot keep up with the pace.
If the Hoffmans
want the millions in gold
they think sits on the bedrock,
something's got to give.
How long until you think
we're on bedrock?
I mean,
how long you think
it's gonna take us
to get down there?
- Another week?
- No. No.
I don't think it's gonna take
that long --
three, four days,
you know, max.
Well, the gold's
getting better.
It's obviously down below.
But I'm just wondering
how far down below.
So, I mean,
I'm even kind of considering
that maybe we just stop the run
until we touch bedrock.
Maybe we just dig,
dig, dig, dig, dig
and then just run the material
that hit down below?
There's no benefit to that.
I mean, I'd rather spend
the last bit of money we have
on only the dirt
that's above bedrock.
My goal -- and still is --
is to give the guys
a bunch of gold.
And right now,
that's not much.
Todd wants to stop running
tons of shallower dirt,
to concentrate
all of their resources
on digging to the big gold
at the bottom of the glory hole.
Come here, and let's have
a little meeting with the guys.
They've spent well over
a quarter of a million dollars
and have only found 6 ounces
of gold, worth about $8,000.
They have to find
around 190 ounces of gold
before anyone gets paid
a single cent.
Their decision could be
make-or-break.
Basically, the two options
are this --
we keep running this material.
We're getting better gold,
obviously.
But we may run out of money,
and we may break something
that we just can't fix.
And that will ruin our chances
to get down to bedrock.
Or we stockpile this material
with the loader right up here,
and we just support Jack
and just dig, dig, dig.
I still believe the gold's down
there. We haven't touched it.
And I know we're coming
to the end of the money,
and that means the end
of the summer.
So I'm all for going for it.
Todd: Thurb?
No, I think we're
chasing fairy tales.
I think we should run
what we can run.
Narrator: Back in Oregon,
Thurber ran
his own sheet-metal shop,
but the recession
closed him down.
Heavenly Father...
Right, and I don't have
a paycheck, so...
It's not too hard to figure out
I'm in big trouble.
Narrator: He raided his pension
to come mining
and is one mortgage
payment away from
losing the family home.
We were at the verge
of foreclosure
a couple different times
because we did get behind.
And the banks don't have
any remorse or anything.
They just say,
"That's it. Too bad."
[voice breaking ] That's been
really, really hard.
Narrator: Desperately in need
of any money he can get,
Thurber thinks
even the poor-quality dirt
is worth running.
I know you need money
as bad as I do
and you got bills to pay.
Would you rather take a chance
and pay them off,
or just go home
and put a dent in them?
Well, you know, a little
is better than nothing.
I kind of agree
with Todd, though.
I say throw the dice.
That's what we're here for.
Hurt: Yeah, there's something
I wanted to say.
A guy could
really like you guys.
Well, I want to see
y'all get it.
I want to see what's there.
[laughs]
- You're with me.
- Yes, sir.
I just do not want
to leave this place
unless I know
what is at the bottom,
and that's really
why we're all here, guys,
'cause we're
out on an adventure.
It's like flying to the moon.
I don't want to run out of gas
when I feel like we're close,
you know?
And this is the beginning
of our last push.
We're gonna go get
this frickin' bedrock.
Everybody in?
- Yeah.
- Let's do it.
Huh? Put your hats in.
Narrator:
It's bedrock or bust.
The wash plant is shut down.
And with the crew
supporting him,
Jack is immediately encouraged
by what he sees
in the glory hole.
Jack: I've got one
of those green boulders
right in here right now.
I'll show you.
That boulder right...there.
That's what you got to look for.
Narrator:
But Thurber still thinks
they should run the wash plant
instead of risking it all
to dig for bedrock.
To me, we're -- you know,
we're chasing a fairy tale.
We don't know that there's
a waterfall there.
We don't know
that there's buckets of gold.
That waterfall could be
I just think we got material
that has gold,
more than we've had
all summer.
Run it.
Narrator: With everything
riding on their decision,
Todd travels to Haines airport.
He's flying in
some serious muscle.
To actually make it, we needed
a little bit of help.
Trust me.
We need a master plan.
It may be 60 feet deep.
Narrator: When the miners
first came to Alaska...
Oh, hey, buddy.
...Dave Turin helped them
get the wash plant
up and running.
- Good to see you.
- Good to see you, man.
Put an angle iron on here.
Bring another angle iron up.
Come on, let's get it done,
you guys.
Let's find
some frickin' gold!
- Let's go.
- Right here.
Narrator: Dave runs a lucrative
rock quarry back in Oregon.
If anyone can get them down to
the bedrock quickly, it's Dave.
I'm encouraged.
We're gonna get you down there.
We've got to make sure
it's safe, though, Jack.
We don't want you
tipping that thing over
in the middle
of that water.
What if we want to go
another 10, 20 feet down?
- You got some work to do.
- Okay.
You got to get this
a little wider.
We got to get more area
opened up.
If you could
just get us down...
Another 10 feet or so?
...just another 10,
I think that's plenty.
[engine rumbling ]
Narrator: Dave gets to work
on some quick fixes
around the glory hole.
As you go down,
the further you go down
with the slopes of your wall,
you end up with this tiny,
little hole at the bottom,
and you don't have
any room to work.
So they got to start out wider
at the top,
and then they can dig down
and get down deeper.
But they got to have a lot wider
footprint at the top
in order to maneuver
down in the bottom.
Narrator: Dave widens the top
of the glory hole
to make the sides less steep.
When he is done,
it'll be easier for Jack to dig
and for the old loader
to stockpile material.
It's nice to have Dave here --
finally somebody that really
knows what they're doing,
you know, besides us idiots.
Hey!
Narrator: But Jack starts
digging a road
on the area
Dave just widened.
[truck beeping ]
Why don't we get your dad
to quit digging?
Hey, Dad!
Why are you trying to make
another road out here?
I'm not. I'm just trying
to get rid of this material.
I don't understand
your master plan.
I can't go down there
with the loader,
turn around, and load.
You can
if you go down here.
I guess you don't
understand digging.
- It doesn't work...
- We had a plan.
Dave laid it out.
You're not getting it.
You're doing your own thing.
Jack's just got his own plan,
Dave. He's just digging.
That's -- Dad, we brought Dave
in to build us a plan.
Jack: And we have
to do this --
get on that hoe, go over there,
and sit there.
No. I got a guy here
that's got a plan.
- Well, I know, but...
- Well, you want to
listen to him?
What do you think
we ought to do, Dave?
Look, I'm 30 feet
down in that hole.
Why don't you just listen
for a second?
What if you took the dozer
over here, Jack,
and just get this
all leveled out
so you're not
dinking around with it?
Narrator: No one can argue
with Dave's expertise.
And Jack and Todd
agree to disagree.
He just wants
to have us get up,
have his coffee, eat,
and go dig something,
and, like, no, we got to have
a frickin' plan here, pops.
Todd doesn't understand digging.
To him, it looks real easy,
you know?
You can just go down there
and just move stuff.
Narrator: Dave's been
down this road before.
That's the father/son thing.
I deal with it
all the time with my dad.
It's like
we still don't know anything,
and we never probably will.
[engine rumbling ]
Narrator: Todd takes over
the 400 from Jack
to finish the widening
according to Dave's plan.
Yeah, don't tell my dad.
He don't like anybody in here.
[engine turns over]
Narrator: They widen out
the top of the glory hole
to 75,000 square feet,
an area
larger than a football field.
But Dave
is only getting started.
He also has
a controversial suggestion --
run the wash plant again.
- Hey, we got to talk.
Todd: Okay.
What do you
got going here?
You got to help me out here.
I'm kind of lost.
I see you digging a hole,
but you're not running
the wash plant.
- I know.
Why can't you get that material
up to the plant?
Well, here's the thing --
our main goal is to get
down to the gold at bedrock.
So, basically, I said, hey,
we'll use the loader
to support Jack.
Everybody support Jack
with the pumps and everything,
and get down to bedrock.
Once we get there,
then we fire up
and we only run the juiciest
material that we have.
Here's what I think
you ought to do --
cut in a new road,
get that haul time down,
and get him closer to the plant,
and then he can haul it off
as fast as Jack can dig it
and you can run.
The loader has been taking
the long way
around the glory hole
to the wash plant.
The route is inefficient
and tough
on the 37-year-old machine.
Dave suggests a shortcut
that will take
the strain off the loader
and get dirt processed
a lot faster.
I'm gonna push a road
right down in here.
We're gonna make these guys
so much more efficient
at getting the material
out of the ground to the plant.
Narrator: If the loader
can handle the new road,
the crew might just be able
to run the wash plant
and dig for bedrock.
Todd: I don't know
if it could be done.
I'm not saying Dave
can't do it --
I'm just saying,
with our junk and our guys,
if we could run both
effectively.
So we'll see what he can
come up with, you know?
If he can do it,
hey, I'm okay to run.
But I need
to accomplish the goal
of going down
to the bottom of this hole.
Narrator: It takes Dave
the better part of a day,
but they finally manage
to get the new road cut.
It's gonna save us
a bunch of time.
We've been spending
a lot of time
just commuting with the loader,
moving material
over to the plant.
Narrator: Jack fills up
their patched-up loader,
and it manages the new road
without a problem.
Now they can dig deep
and run dirt at the same time.
That should be
pretty, pretty awesome stuff.
Narrator: Just when things are
finally running like clockwork,
the Alaskan winter makes its
first appearance at the mine.
The rain's getting
a little chunky, isn't it?
We're getting clumps
in our rain.
Narrator:
The snow is a game changer.
Dave's improvements may be
too little too late.
Yeah, here it is.
It's here.
It couldn't come
at a worse time.
Narrator:
Overnight, the temperatures
in Porcupine Creek
dropped below
the freezing point,
signaling the beginning of the
end of the gold-mining season.
Without water, we can't run.
So if it freezes
any more than this,
we're gonna be in trouble.
This is just nothing yet.
It's just the beginning.
It's gonna get awful cold here.
If we can get to bedrock in time
before we get ran out of here
by the snow,
that's the question.
I don't know.
And if it starts
freezing up our pumps,
it's gonna be a nightmare.
Thurber:
It's just a little shot of snow,
but it's kind of a warning shot
across the bow,
kind of, I think,
waking everybody up.
We should start thinking about
how much time we have left.
Narrator: Quarry expert
Dave Turin's new road
should allow them to dig and run
material through the wash plant
at the same time,
if the equipment
can handle the weather.
As long as we don't slow him
down, we can run the plant.
I say let's run it.
Don't worry about me.
I'm fine.
The loader
is the most important.
Take it easy.
Let's go!
It's better just to run and look
at that frickin' sluice box,
see what we got.
Jack, my dad, cannot be more
than 4 or 5 feet from bedrock.
I expect to hit it
within the next 48 hours.
Narrator: They might not have
to find the $275,000
worth of gold they need
just to break even.
With the temperature flirting
with the freezing point,
no one knows how the
wash plant will cope.
It's cold in here!
My feet are freezing!
Ready? You ready?
Let's wash some rocks!
Good to be running.
That whole plan of just stopping
to dig down to bedrock
didn't seem right.
Narrator:
Jack reaches the deepest
he has ever been
in the glory hole.
The loader ferries
the precious dirt
straight up to the wash plant,
using Dave Turin's
new shortcut.
But there's a problem
up at the wash plant.
Hey!
The bottom -- the back end
of that ain't pumping right.
The little jig at the back
is clogging up.
It's not working right.
Something is stopping
the gold-bearing black sand
from reaching the buckets.
Todd, this isn't even moving.
There's no hutch water.
I think it's froze.
That's exactly what I thought
was gonna happen
when we've got
winter already.
It might be
October back home,
but it's more
like December here.
Hey, Dave, grab that hose
and shake it a little bit.
We got a little frozen hose
somewhere.
It's somewhere
right in here, guys.
Narrator: The duplex jig
should be pulsating
to catch fine gold.
We got to let this
run out a little bit.
But there's a freeze
in one of the outlet funnels,
and one side
has completely seized up.
Todd: It's got a bunch
of sand in there,
and it got
frozen together.
Yeah.
I could tell by the little
chunks coming out.
It's coming
right off of there.
- Oh!
- There you go.
Narrator:
Todd clears the ice from
the jig's outlet funnel.
Has everybody stopped
running up there?
I don't know.
But gold-rich black sand
is being lost.
He needs to get the outlet
funnel back in place fast.
I don't know how I'm
gonna get this in there.
- You got gloves.
- Here we go.
Just pretend you're jumping
in the glory hole.
[bleep]
Okay.
Just don't mess with it.
Geez!
There, now it's moving.
See it?
Yep.
Narrator:
With the blockage fixed,
the water can again
carry fine gold particles
through the system
and into the buckets.
It seems to be working
pretty good now.
So, hopefully it stays working,
you know?
Narrator: The wash plant is
back to running dirt
from over 40 feet down
in the glory hole.
This is gonna turn to gold there
pretty quick.
We're in excellent stuff.
Narrator:
The morning chill gives way
to the midday Alaskan sun.
And as the ice thaws,
the crew manages to run
their entire stockpile of dirt.
After that one, no more.
Jack suspects it's richer than
anything they've dug so far.
But to find out, they must stop
the plant and take a look.
Yeah, I see gold
all through that,
big chunks right in here.
When you can see it
up here at the top,
more than likely pretty good.
Look at this piece
down here.
You got a picker?
All right.
I don't know if it's
a nose picker or what,
but, you know,
you pick it out of here.
I'll pick gold
all day long.
The riffles and nugget traps
are catching good gold
from this new material.
But it's the fine gold
they can't see
coming out the back
of the wash plant
that they think
will make them rich.
Thurber:
That's where the gold will be
mixed in with the black sand.
The only problem
is we don't have a way
of getting that gold
out of the black sand.
There's 60% of our gold.
Of course, we've never mined
before, and we're learning.
But that's our big challenge
right now.
Narrator: Black sand contains
the heaviest particles of gold,
along with a magnetic material
called magnetite.
The miners use magnets
in a bucket
to try and remove it.
But small particles of fine gold
get trapped as well.
Todd: This is the problem
that I'm dealing with.
See it?
Yeah, and there's gold.
When I lifted that out,
it picked up gold with it.
Sometimes you can
actually see it.
It's like hair.
Narrator: Now that the crew
can run the wash plant
and dig simultaneously,
every passing day generates
another 24 buckets
of black sand.
Jim Thurber has been hauling
the buckets from day one.
It just seems like we're
spinning our wheels.
We got a bunch of black sand.
I can't go make a mortgage
payment with black sand.
I can't take it in the
supermarket and buy groceries.
It does me absolutely no good
in this stage.
And we got a crazy amount.
We've got 24 buckets today.
I got that much
frickin' black sand.
Todd: I just got
And it's like I can't keep
going and buying buckets.
It's $150 every time
I buy them.
Narrator:
Thurber's desperate to get
at the thousands of dollars
worth of gold
they think is trapped
in the buckets.
Can you hang in there?
Give us one more day.
I don't know.
Todd needs to get $275,000
worth of gold
to have any profit
to share with his crew.
My guys are like --
it's like they think
I've been gold mining my whole
life or something, you know,
like I'm supposed to pull
a rabbit out of my hat.
I don't know.
But, I mean, 24 buckets
of black sand in one day?
That's a lot.
Narrator:
Todd calls in yet another expert
from his home state of Oregon
with a machine that could solve
all their problems.
- Dude!
- Dude!
- Are you tired or what?
- Man, are you guys
hard to find.
Long drive.
Bryon Tolle
is an inventor
with a passion
for gold mining.
He claims his latest invention
can remove the magnetic
material from Todd's buckets,
leaving behind nothing
but gold and other minerals.
Hey, Bryon, the last time
we ran is right here.
Holy crap.
And you said you could do this
in a half hour?
Tolle: Is it real magnetic?
Is it real magnetic?
Narrator: The Hoffman
crew tried once before
to get gold out of the black
sand with a wave table.
It is just not worth the powder
to blow it to hell.
Despite all their efforts,
they couldn't get any gold
out of the black sand.
You cannot
pull it off of here.
It's in production mode.
You cannot do this and pull.
I can't talk to you.
With so much at stake,
tensions hit a fever pitch.
'Cause I've been here
for three months
and we haven't
any [bleep] money!
Dude, you want to go?
Well [bleep] go.
And Jimmy Dorsey exited
the camp, never to return.
Now it's Bryon Tolle's turn
to put himself
in the firing line.
There's like 3 or 4 tons
of black sand sitting here,
and I've processed
small amounts,
you know, as I check claims.
So I'm not exactly sure
how much it'll run an hour
or how much
he's expecting an hour.
I want to see
this machine, Bryon.
Ta-da! Wow.
[ indistinct conversations]
So, here it is.
- You're kidding me.
- There's the machine.
You got it all painted
and everything.
Narrator:
Todd and his crew have called
in many favors along the way,
but none more important
than this one.
Expectations are high.
It'll work with our material
probably better
than any material.
Narrator: The Hoffman crew
is down to the last days
of the gold-mining season.
Winter's first snow showers
and freezing temperatures
threaten to close them down
at any moment.
If you quit,
you don't get there.
So we're going
right to the bitter end.
Narrator: They are now running
richer, deeper dirt
through the wash plant
than they have all season.
- Look at that whole bar.
- Oh, wow.
This is
our best one yet.
But the guys have not been able
to get their hands
on the thousands of dollars
worth of fine gold
they think is trapped
in the black sand, until now.
Inventor Bryon Tolle
has brought in a new machine
that could make them all rich.
There we go.
- Hey, Dad.
- Yeah.
I need Jim
to come up here.
He's been busting his back
on those buckets.
You're the only guy
not running a piece.
I need him to come up here
and work this black sand
with Bryon.
Okay, I just want to find out
what's going on right here.
Jack's got a sample of dirt
from the very bottom
of the glory hole.
This is hot stuff.
Let's go!
Jack doesn't trust
the prize material
to Bryon's prototype machine.
He wants to pan it by hand.
Listen,
this bucket here,
I don't want it
going through that.
This bucket here
stays here.
That black sand is
what we're interested in.
- Okay, let's go.
- Okay.
You're not messing
with my bucket.
[grunts]
Let's run this one.
We're gonna run
the good stuff.
Jack just told me not to run
this bucket, but...
I think we're gonna run it.
Is that a scoop,
or is that too much?
This is our first scoop,
dude.
Wow, there it goes.
Tolle: Well, actually, see,
you get a little bonus look.
There's gold
all through there.
There's gold. See how the gold's
laying down through there?
Narrator:
The Porcupine Creek black sand
contains small particles
of gold,
along with other minerals
and a magnetic metal compound
called magnetite.
The separator has a belt
with a magnet inside it.
As the black sand
falls through the water,
magnetite is pulled
toward the belt.
The gold
and non-magnetic material
falls straight down
into one bucket,
and the worthless magnetite
is separated out into another.
That takes care
of the black sand for you.
There's your magnetite,
buddy.
No gold in it.
Thurber:
That's awesome.
Here's your gold side.
So what we're gonna do is
just take this magnet,
run it down through here,
find out how good
of a job we did.
- Amazing.
- Teeny.
So you've just got rid
of one of your biggest
enemies in here.
Let me pan this out
a little bit.
Narrator:
The remaining material
contains more gold
than they have ever seen
in their pans.
Todd: How many
scoops was that?
Thurber: Two.
Two scoops. Whatever we're
running is no joke.
Look at that. There's
no magnetic properties in it.
You know what,
you cannot argue with success.
My hat's off to you,
brother.
- Thank you, sir.
- Yeah.
That's what
it's all about.
Narrator: With the Alaskan
winter bearing down,
the crew needs to run
as much deep material
as fast as they can.
But the glory hole
is now so deep,
it's filling up with groundwater
as soon as Jack stops digging.
From now on,
they will have to work 24/7
to keep the glory hole drained.
The newest member of the crew,
Chris Doumitt,
draws the short straw.
For what I'm going through,
I certainly hope it is worth it.
Jack got down into some
really, really fine material.
That's about the only reason
I'd be doing it.
If it was anything like it's
been the last couple months,
I probably wouldn't
go through this.
Narrator: The hole is
now 250 by 300 feet across
and as deep
as a 5-story building.
Over 150 gallons of water
flood into it every minute.
It takes about 7 1/2 hours
to pump it down
as dry as we can get it.
Narrator: It's no easy task.
Water has to first be fed
from an auxiliary pump
into the main pump.
And now we'll get
this one priming.
It would be kind of nice
if there was somebody
on another pump,
because I'm opening,
closing valves
and turning things on and off.
[engine turns over]
Narrator: Chris mans his post
all night in case a pump fails.
Things look different
in the dark, you know?
Narrator:
One false step could land him
in 25 feet of freezing water.
The banks are steep.
I don't need to hurt myself
out here tonight
is what I'm saying,
'cause nobody's gonna come
check on me.
Narrator: It's first light
in Porcupine Creek, Alaska.
For now, the gold miners have
been spared any more snow.
In a race against time,
Chris manned
the glory-hole pumps all night
to give Jack a fighting chance
to hit bedrock
and get to the gold.
Jack: Yeah, it's a hole,
that's for sure.
Yeah, Chris worked all night
keeping the pumps going.
So, yeah, I'm real proud of him
'cause now I can see it.
I didn't realize I had
gotten down that far.
Hopefully, I can touch bedrock.
It's critical that we do that
so I can pay all these guys.
Narrator:
The Hoffmans have spent
nearly $275,000
to get this far.
With the glory hole the deepest
and driest it's ever been,
now is their best chance of
finding enough gold to get paid.
We're gonna hit bedrock today.
If we don't hit bedrock today,
I'm gonna be pissed off.
So I want it bad.
We're gonna go ahead and run.
With all this material,
we got to get it out of here.
We got to run it,
and it's really good stuff.
Narrator: The black sand
coming out of the wash plant
is getting richer by the day.
Thurber has been hauling
buckets of it for months,
hoping the gold trapped inside
will save his house
from foreclosure.
Thurber:
It'll wear on you.
I'm done,
but you got to keep going.
I've got responsibilities,
you know?
I could throw in the towel
and just say,
"Guys, I'm physically shot,"
but I can't.
I got to keep going.
Narrator: It's down
to Bryon Tolle to get gold
out of the hundreds of buckets
stockpiled
on their dig down to bedrock.
If the older bucket loads
are as rich
as the material coming out now,
they could be looking
at $2 1/2 million worth of gold.
But if the old material
is not rich in gold,
they will have spent
almost five months
battling the Alaskan elements
for nothing.
They're all over there looking
nice and pretty all lined up.
But what the frick, you know?
I got to get the gold out of it.
Narrator:
The magnetic separator proved
the deepest dirt
is rich in gold.
If there's gold in the buckets
they've stockpiled,
the separator will find it.
It doesn't look
very rich to me,
but there is gold
that you can barely see.
We'll find out.
But the black sand
from the last few months
is from much shallower dirt.
When the magnetic residue
is removed,
there's very little gold.
The news is devastating.
Yeah, it could mean there's
nothing in any of our buckets,
at least not enough
to make it worth a crap.
Tolle: That's real fine material
right there.
So it's showing
that the separator
isn't letting it float away
and you're losing it.
You're capturing it in here,
but how much you got out there
to start with,
that's hard to say now.
Narrator: The crew was sure
their four-month stockpile
of black sand
was money in the bank.
But that's not the case.
If it's in there,
it's frickin' fine.
I can't see it,
but that doesn't mean anything.
I've got -- you know,
I wear glasses.
Bryon checks bucket after bucket
of the older material.
But the story remains the same.
Tolle:
That's the amount of gold
that I got out
of one 5-gallon bucket.
That's about $2
worth of gold.
Your buckets cost you
You got more money in your
buckets than in your gold.
I'm sorry.
- Ooh, that's not good.
- Yeah, I am sorry.
Dude,
Thurber's gonna cry.
With just $2 worth of gold flake
in each bucket,
Thurber spent the season
earning the crew a paltry $240.
Hey, Thurb!
Yeah.
We got about 2 bucks.
Bryon found only
about $2 worth of gold
in that whole bucket
of black sand.
One whole bucket.
So what I've been doing
for the last two months
is a bunch of [bleep]
Yeah, it looks, you know...
I don't know.
Ah [bleep] it.
I don't know
what to tell you.
[bleep]
- [bleep]
- Come on, dude.
- Don't get...
- Get off!
We'll talk -- I don't want
to talk about it right now.
Man:
How'd he take it?
How do you think
he frickin' took it?
Back up.
Just back off a little bit.
I've been [bleep] told that
all of my time was wasted.
Ah [bleep] it.
[bleep]
Narrator: The gold miners
at Porcupine Creek
are facing the end
of the season.
They were convinced
that they had
thousands of dollars’ worth
of fine gold
in their black-sand buckets.
But the buckets
have turned out to be worth
more than their contents.
To make any money at all,
the crew has just days
to find 40 times more gold
than they have
in almost 5 months.
For some,
it is a desperate time.
Thurber:
It's a lot about survival.
I mean, we all came up here
'cause work at home
isn't there.
[sniffles]
You know, anyone that says
gold mining is easy
hasn't done it, that's for sure.
Narrator: For some of the crew,
there is still hope.
Over at the glory hole,
Jack's pulling out boulders
the size of refrigerators,
a sign that bedrock
could be close.
Todd: There's this big boulder
down here,
and it wasn't brought in
by a river.
It's totally brought in
by a glacier.
And it's novel, and a lot
of these guys find gold
stacked underneath
these big, large boulders
that are right down
on the bottom.
So we have one here.
I don't know if my dad can
even get it out, but it's big.
Jack: There it is.
Dig it!
Narrator: John Schnabel,
at the Big Nugget Mine
across the creek,
told the Hoffmans he found
$100,000 worth of gold
under a boulder like this.
Todd: Look at that.
Look at the color of that rock.
A find of that size
could save their operation.
You're getting close
to something.
That big rock --
whatever was under it
ought to be
pretty good with gold.
Narrator: The sediment
surrounding the big boulder
was undisturbed
for thousands of years
and could be packed
full of gold.
Jack:
Where's Chris putting this?
It should be first to run.
This is the hottest stuff
we've had yet.
Hey, that material
that Jack's pulling
out of the hole right now,
it's the hottest stuff yet.
We're getting close.
We're getting
really close.
So let's just take
all that good material
straight to the plant.
- You got it.
- All right, man.
Narrator: After almost
five months of struggle,
the guys run the best dirt yet
through the wash plant.
Everything looks
pretty good...
For a bunch
of homemade crap!
Narrator: For Thurber,
there is a glimmer of hope
that he could still save
his house from foreclosure.
I'm really looking forward
to this.
This is the deepest we've gone.
The gold's been getting better
and better all the way down.
I can't wait to see
how this turns out.
It should be our best.
Narrator: They run
for six hours, then shut down
to test the dirt they found
beneath the boulder.
Todd: All this gold
right through here, guys.
Look at that chunk.
That's looking
really frickin' good.
You know,
when you can shake your pan
and hear the gold in it,
that's just --
that's the richest music
you can hear right there.
Narrator: All signs indicate
the Hoffman crew
is closer than ever
to bedrock
and gold
that can make them rich
and wipe out
$275,000 worth of debt,
if winter doesn't
freeze them out first.
Todd: It means there's a chance,
you know?
And that's basically
what we want, you know?
I mean, the average dude
out there in America,
he's not trying to go out
and slay the dragon.
He just wants to know
that we still live in a place
where there's freedom
and there still is a chance.
You know,
there's a chance for us
to go out and do
something like this.
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01x09 - Bedrock or Bust
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Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.
Reality based series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska.