Gold Rush (2018) s05e10 Episode Script
Parker's Accident
"At Eureka Creek" "Tony Beets's $1 million dredge is four weeks behind schedule.
" He's being unrealistic, a dreamer.
"He's running out of time to get his gold machine rebuilt before winter.
" "He's forced to cut corners.
" That's sketchy looking.
"And puts his crew in harm's way.
" Whoa, whoa, whoa! (CRASH) Blake! Blake! "At McKinnon Creek" Everybody clear! "Todd Hoffman is finally firing on all cylinders on new ground.
" We put all our cards on this cut, the size of ten football fields.
"But to keep their massive wash plant fed" I'm totally out of pay.
".
.
the crew is driven" 1,000 ounces here we come.
".
.
to the brink.
" Holy (BLEEP)! We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
"And at Scribner Creek" Rick, what's up? I got to (BLEEP) run.
".
.
disaster strikes.
" Parker, he's been in an accident! Parker! Parker! "Scribner Creek, the Klondike.
" What's going on? "The crew learns Parker's in trouble.
" Rick, what's up? I've got to (BLEEP).
Ron, can you run load trucks for me? What's going on? Parker, he's been in an accident.
Come on.
Something's wrong, I've just got to go find out what it is.
Parker! Parker! "Parker's been in a head-on collision on the road to Dawson.
" There's his truck, but where's Parker? I don't see him.
Parker, where are you at? Hey.
(DOG BARKS) Dude.
(BLEEP) I know.
Are you all right? Yeah, I'm OK.
You head do that to the steering wheel or your hands? Head.
Jeez.
She's so far in my (BLEEP) side of the road, I'm in the ditch when we hit.
Really? I'm in the (BLEEP) ditch when we hit.
Think that's fallen out? Yeah.
But I don't know if that's just the one piece, you know? The engine still runs and drives.
Yeah.
It's totalled.
Hey, last year, you know, I came up here pretty broke, really.
I had a old government surplus truck that was all beat up and it gave me a lot of problems, and this is the first new truck I've bought, you know? It's nice.
For the first time, I've actually started taking good care of my vehicle.
(SIGHS) Yeah.
Yeah, it's jacked.
"West, at McKinnon Creek half way through their mining season, and with their impressive last clean up of 99 ounces, worth nearly $120,000, the Hoffman crew now has a total of 235 ounces, worth over $280,000.
" OK, ready? Bring it in.
"Todd's now determined to get his highest gold count ever.
" I not only want 1,000 ounces, I want to smash it.
Everybody that laughed at us and all the crap we took - you know what? I want those guys to kiss our (BLEEP).
We got ourselves a monster here, it'll do 300 yards an hour, we got to come together as a team and keep this thing fed.
What do you think, Dave? Are we ready? This is our last chance, both you and I, we got way too much invested in this.
We either hit one out of the park or we're striking out.
We've got the team, we've got the ground, we've got the equipment now.
And I think we're gonna see this sluice box light up.
"The Hoffman crew has finished running the cuts beside their wash plant.
They're about to run the first pay from the higher cut at the far end of their claim.
" We're on the higher cut, but it's a mile haul.
Rock truckers, how fast can we bring it down here? As fast as you can dig it.
All right, man.
Dad, can you just say a little prayer for us? Yep.
Lord, give our rock truck drivers safety and help them to just speedily get that to the plant.
Lord, help the plant to just gobble it up and to put the gold in the box here, amen.
ALL: Amen.
Let's go.
We put all our cards on this cut, and let's hope it pays off.
"As the second half of the season begins, the Hoffman crew has one last chance to redeem themselves.
" Hey, Dave, fire up the generator.
(GENERATOR STARTS) Everybody clear! Tail conveyor coming on.
Screens coming on.
Thurber! Fire it up.
"Thurber starts the 14,000 litre a minute water pump.
The rock trucks haul paydirt from the higher cut.
And Jack loads his first bucket into Monster Red.
" Let's kick some (BLEEP).
I'm keeping count with this clicker, I push it every time I dump a load.
Monster Red needs 50 dumps per hour.
"50 bucket loads is 300 yards of paydirt.
To meet Monster Red's demand, Kevin and Logan have to deliver one truck load every six minutes.
And it's over a 1km round trip.
" I'm totally out of pay, that's it.
Ten-four.
RADIO: Yeah, I'm on my way.
(SINGING) Where is the edge, where is the edge? I don't wanna drive my truck off the cliff.
"Logan's rock truck backs up to the ramp.
" Phew, right there.
"And Jack immediately takes the pay.
" Right now, 39 loads an hour, that's roughly 230 yards, it's just not acceptable.
"60 minutes in, it's clear the two rock trucks just can't feed Monster Red enough paydirt.
" Hey, Kevin and Logan, I know you guys are trying, but you've gotta try a little bit harder.
It's just a long haul on this road and it's tight.
We can't even pass each other.
Well, let's put it this way - I knew some girls that could load faster than that.
Son of a "Jack is yelling down to us to get him pay, and, I mean, my foot's all the way to the floor, we can only go so fast and this is about it.
That was just way too close, Loge.
I've never had to run my truck like a Formula One racecar.
Holy (BLEEP)! .
.
"At McKinnon Creek Kevin and Logan are racing to keep their massive wash plant fed.
" Holy (BLEEP).
Kevin! Dude, that was too close, this is (BLEEP) stupid.
Let's go talk to Dave.
"With hauling stopped, Jack runs out of paydirt.
" Hey, Todd, I'm shutting her down.
You know, if they can't keep the pay coming, we can't feed the plant.
If I can't feed the plant, I can't get the gold, you know.
It's just just one thing, you know, after another, you know.
It's like a dog chasing its own tail.
I don't know what the answer is, but we're down.
Have you guys got a minute? What's up? Jack's been pushing us to get pay to that plant at a crazy rate.
It's the only way we're gonna make any money.
understand that.
OK, what's the turn around? Listen to me.
No, you listen to me.
What are the minutes? Come on, let's talk.
It's like a nine minute trip.
It's nine minutes? It's not gonna work.
We've gotta get the pay to the plant in a rock truck.
We can get pay down there, just not at that rate.
I'm not gonna drive.
You're refusing to drive - You need to take this seriously.
You're refusing to drive the trucks right now? I'm coming to you with a safety concern and you're not taking me seriously? Yeah, I'm telling you I'm not driving.
I'm not saying I'm not taking you seriously.
That's how feel.
Hey, just relax, let's work through this.
Don't start accusing me him and me.
Hey, calm down, calm down.
If it's that big a deal, then we'll solve it.
I don't care what you do.
Are you guys using your radios? Are you using the radios? I'm done.
"8km east at Eureka Creek After three months of gruelling work dismantling Tony Beets's $1 million dredge, Mike and Jerry are about to begin phase two - resurrecting the beast at its new home.
Dredges like Tony's dominated mining in the Yukon in the first half of the 20th century.
12 of these massive machines produced over 15 tons of gold that today would be worth over $650 million.
Tony is planning to mine like the old timers.
But his 75-year-old machine is hundreds of pieces.
Mike and Jerry assess the work that lies ahead.
" Well, this is some of the superstructure that holds the ladder up, isn't it? I don't remember the ends being bent on these eye-beams.
Do you, Mike? No.
I'm sure they got messed up unloading them.
You've got to be kidding me.
They'll have to be cut out and replaced.
Look at this mess.
Those sluice boxes aren't useable the way they are.
You know, those sluice boxes are kind of important, that's what catches the gold.
Right.
That'll have to be all cut apart and fixed back up.
It's like nobody gives a (BLEEP).
(HORNS HONK) "When the dredge convoy arrived" Ah! ".
.
Tony rushed to get everything offloaded.
" OK, there you go.
There we go! (LAUGHS) "His reckless style has left critical parts damaged.
Putting his rebuild even further behind schedule.
" Well, we need to start figuring out what it's going to take to get this thing back together.
We don't have much season left.
And the weather might turn on us here too, so We got pontoons, a week.
Superstructure, all the eye-beams, two weeks.
Bucket line stacker and all the electrical, two weeks.
I don't think there's a hope in hell that this'll be back together this season.
"Four hours late, Tony Beets arrives at Eureka Creek.
" (BLEEP) Tony.
I thought we were promised a lay down yard and a place to put the (BLEEP) thing back together.
It looks like a (BLEEP) junkyard.
This is gonna cost us time.
He's being unrealistic, a dreamer, it isn't gonna get done, This cost us probably weeks, the way this was handled and dumped off here.
You expect us to put this back together now? It's not a piece of cake, Tony.
"Tony takes Mike and Jerry to the cut where he plans to run the dredge by the end of the season.
" That's amazing.
Huh.
That right there is the reason we're here, we want that dredge running and getting that gold out the ground.
"Tony's master plan, level an area in his gold rich cut to fit together the pontoons, then they'll have to rebuild the superstructure and all the working parts of the dredge.
Once assembled, they'll flood the cut, float the dredge and begin mining for gold like they did 100 years ago.
" Let's get her back together, huh? Here we go.
"Tony's given Jerry and Mike the motivation they need to begin levelling the cut.
" Yeah, looking good, Jerry.
In that pile over there is the first pay pile that the dredge is gonna head for when she sets sail.
This is great.
If Tony's plan works, we might just have this dredge running this season.
"8km east at Scribner Creek Parker's shaken off his accident and got himself a second-hand pick up truck.
He's once again ready to roll.
Just three days away from his 20th birthday, he's already banked 915 ounces of gold, worth over $1 million.
And his grandpa is coming to the claim to celebrate.
" Last week's clean up was the best ever, you know, 230 ounces.
Yeah, that's damned good, and we're within touching distance of 1,000.
So everybody's working hard and I think we're really gonna do it.
"But halfway through the season, he's still 85 ounces short of where he needs to be to hit his 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million goal.
" Hey, what up, youngster? How are you doing? Good, good.
So I want to have 1,000 ounces by the time my grandpa gets here, that's three days.
Think we can get it by then? If we push hard, nothing breaks, there's a chance.
Let's just run her hard.
We'll push it as hard as we can.
Thanks, dude.
Yeah, good luck on this one, man.
Parker wants to push for 1,000 ounces by the time his grandpa gets here.
I think that'd be great.
Not only would it be great for him, I think it'd be a great moral booster for the whole crew.
It's gonna be a challenge, but it'd definitely be the icing on the cake for his birthday, there's no doubt about that.
Gee! Hit the button.
Hit it! .
.
"At Scribner Creek, Parker's crew pushes to hit 1,000 ounces before Grandpa John shows up to celebrate his grandson's 20th birthday.
But suddenly there's a major problem with the wash plant.
" Hit the button, hit it! You at the bypass? Yeah.
"The conveyor belt that feeds paydirt into the plant has torn lengthways.
Clogging the feeder and spilling gold rich paydirt everywhere.
" I bet you that belt's just coiled up in that pre-wash right now.
And then, if you come underneath it, you can see the tear starts down there at the patch, it goes all the way up to the head wheel and all the way back down to the hopper.
(BLEEP) It's the whole length of it.
(BLEEP) Something caught it somewhere for it to rip like that.
It wouldn't be a huge deal but we don't have a spare.
We're down until we get it replaced, basically.
There's no way you can repair this, and I know Gene's been after Parker for quite some time to get a spare belt.
He finally talked him into it but I don't think it'll be here for about another three or four days.
Right now, we're totally dead in the water.
Well, if it's not gonna be here for a while Call Max and see what we've got.
"Parker is shut down, all he can do now is a clean up and hope he hits his midseason goal of 1,000 ounces, worth $1.
2 million.
" Oh, we've got him.
I think we've got there's gold in here along the bar.
All along this piece of iron on the back side there's gold.
There's gold in here.
I think this could be a good one, I think we've got that 1,000 ounces.
"To hit 1,000 ounces, Parker needs only 85 ounces.
" 63.
7.
Should have been better than that.
"63.
7 ounces brings Parker's total to 978 ounces, worth nearly $1.
2 million.
He's still 22 short of the 1,000 ounces he was hoping to present to his grandpa.
" Hey guys, so I just weighed that gold up and it ends up we're a little short.
We're only at 978.
I know you guys all busted your ass, but it is what it is.
Why don't you guys take the rest of the weekend off? And I'll see you guys out here on Monday.
Man, I really wanted to show my grandpa 1,000 ounces, but I guess you can't have everything.
"West, at Eureka Creek, Tony Beets is about to transport the first of his five pontoons down to the rebuild site.
" (WHISTLES) Can we do anything for you, Tony? Right, it needs a crane to pick that thing up, three piece of equipment on it, you stand a better chance of damaging them pontoons.
"To save time, Tony's using a loader and excavator to lift the 24-ton pontoon onto the trailer.
" The worst thing is dropping them and getting somebody hurt.
Just gotta be careful with them and see what happens, I guess.
Easy.
Easy.
Uh-oh.
(BLEEP) Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
(CRASH) "Tony's rushed approach isn't going to work.
And run to the back? Yeah.
"Tony will use two loaders either side of the pontoon to share the weight and lift it onto the back of the trailer.
" Keep going.
That's it.
Back it up.
Slowly.
Stop.
(BLEEP) That wasn't too bad at all.
"At McKinnon Creek After a close call in their rock trucks on the narrow road to Monster Red, Kevin and Logan refused to drive.
Mine boss Dave Turin needs to come up with a solution, and fast.
" This haul isn't working, I've gotta get up there and see what's going on.
This is just not wide enough for two trucks.
Dave to Todd.
How's it going? These roads are too dangerous, the trucks aren't gonna be able to pass each other.
I don't know what the solution is.
Dave, meet me over here by this cut.
I'll be there in a minute.
Hey, I got an idea, Dave.
What do you think? We've got to build a new road and connect the corner of the cut to the wash plant.
We put a culvert in there.
All right.
And then this trench, you get the dozer and cut the road in.
A one-way road system.
That just might work.
I'll be damned.
"Todd's plan, build a bridge over their drainage system then move thousands of tons of dirt into a trench and form a new road directly to the wash plant.
This will create a one-way system that keeps the rock trucks from having to pass each other.
" We're gonna build a paydirt super highway.
This is gonna be a straight shot from the largest cut we've ever done to the largest wash plant in the Klondike.
Put in a culvert.
We've got a real sophisticated system for our water.
It's in a closed circuit, and this culvert will allow us to get the paydirt and not go through our water system.
"With the culvert, or drainage pipe, now in place, Dave begins work on the rest of the road.
" Looking good.
So this'll be access to our cut and access to our wash plant, so I've just gotta build it, build it right, and then be done with it.
This should solve the problem.
This should get the paydirt to the plant and in the box.
This road, this is gonna be a good idea.
"East, at Eureka Creek Tony Beets trucks in the first of his five 24-ton pontoons to the cut where he plans to reconstruct his gold dredge, piece by piece.
" I think it'll take probably a week to roll the pontoons together.
This isn't ever gonna happen.
"To make up for lost time, Tony demands they position and attach all five pontoons in just one day.
" Somebody's got to.
Jerry, up! "Jerry lifts the first pontoon off the trailer.
" That (BLEEP) sketchy looking! It needs to go that way.
(CRASH) Mike! Mike! .
.
"At Eureka Creek "Tony Beets and crew position the first 24-ton pontoon of his gold dredge.
" (CRASH) Mike! Mike! Man, that was close.
It was like the brake didn't hold.
Just got to be careful.
24 ton coming down on a person isn't gonna be a pretty sight.
The brake didn't hold on the crane.
Probably I didn't have the engine revved up tight enough and the brake released and down the pontoon came.
We'll just keep it revved up more the next time.
"Tony decides not to take any more chances.
He calls in a second crane to help manoeuvre the massive pontoons.
" All these three quarter bolts have to line up with those three quarter bolts, and there's only about a 16th of an inch clearance here, so the two have to be lined up almost perfectly to slide the new bolts through.
Well, I think it's going to be a challenge, there's 200 bolts on that side to line up.
There's not much room for error.
Down a little bit.
I have to go get washers, so don't yell.
What are we gonna do about this? It looks like it got bent when it got shipped.
Ah, not quite as planned, but it's going together and that's what counts.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm surprised.
I didn't think it would go this good.
Oh, I believe in you.
Argh! Oh! (ALL LAUGH) Oh, he's elbowed my throat.
That went so much faster than I ever would have guessed it did, we actually gained some days here.
If the rest of the stuff goes together, it might be done this fall.
"At McKinnon Creek the Hoffman crew has connected their wash plant to the higher cut, with their new paydirt super highway.
" Looks like you about got it, Dave.
Hey.
It's looking good, buddy.
All right, man.
It's looking good.
"They've lost two days of mining, but Kevin and Logan can now make up for lost time.
" Come on, let's go.
We got one way traffic now, they're headed one way around here and they move around the plant, come back up the old road and so I think we've solved the problem.
Dave turned our single lane dirt road into basically the autobahn.
We're actually making way better time now because it is a shorter route.
It's great.
Stand back.
"Thurber fires up Monster Red.
" Now we're getting somewhere.
Who in their right mind wouldn't wanna be here? You know? Getting sunshine, everything's working well.
I love this, I love it, beautiful.
It's fandabbydozy.
Well, we've been running for an hour.
And these guys are doing a great job, every time you look there's another truck load of material, and I'll take as many of them as you can give me.
"So far, the rock trucks have tried and failed to deliver 300 yards of paydirt an hour.
" Hey, Dad, what bucket is that? That's 51, so that's 300 yards an hour.
Good job, Dad, keep it going.
Yeah! Over 300 yards an hour, hopefully we can keep this going, 1,000 ounces here we come.
"At Scribner Creek the replacement belt for the broken conveyor has arrived.
But after failing to reach his mid-season goal of 1,000 ounces, Parker has left town and given his crew the weekend off.
But Chris refuses to quit.
" Hey, you guys got a minute? Yeah.
Yep.
I know that Parker said to shut everything down this weekend, take a break, but I've got to thinking on this.
You know Parker just smashed his truck, right? Yeah.
The birthday's coming up, his grandpa's coming in, I crunched some numbers, and I think if we work through this weekend, we can hit 1,000 ounces for his birthday.
What do you think? Is it worth taking a shot? Yeah, I don't see why we couldn't do that, I'm sure it'd make him happy.
He's bummered about his truck, so Yeah.
Right.
Sounds good.
If we can pull this off, I think it'd be a tremendous birthday present.
What other 20-year-old kid gets 1,000 ounces of gold for his birthday, right? "Parker's crew is only 22 ounces short of 1,000.
But before they can start running paydirt, they'll have to first replace their entire conveyor belt, and Parker's birthday is just two days away.
" Let's get to work.
Come on, let's make it happen.
Come on.
She's good to go.
Fire it up! Yeah! That's it! Whoo! Now you're talking.
Yee-haw! The whole plan's coming together.
Monday, we ought to have 1,000 ounces.
"At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew has spent weeks prepping the higher cut for a big second half of the season.
" That cut's the size of ten football fields, so hopefully we didn't make the wrong decision to go up there and strip that.
"After running for just three days this week, Todd is about to find out if the higher cut will give him a chance of a 1,000 ounce, $1.
2 million season.
" It's good, but it's not as good as I was expecting.
Put it that way.
All right.
The proof's in the pudding now.
Our last clean out was our biggest, we're coming off a 100 ounce clean up, and I'm hoping that this one is even better.
Give me the good news.
22.
74.
Hmm.
"22.
7 ounces is worth just $28,000.
Half way through the mining season, Todd's gold total is just 258 ounces, worth $310,000.
" That was 7,000 yards, Dad.
That should have been about 60 ounces.
(SIGHS) This is stupid, we can't do that.
A poor box of yards, that's all it is.
We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
This is not good, Dad.
"After shutting down for two days to build a new road to their plant, the higher cut just isn't paying out.
" If we don't straighten this out, we're gonna be out of here and be looking really stupid.
We can't survive on four bucks a yard, it's gotta be ten bucks a yard or we can't even make it.
So am I disappointed? Yeah, I'm a little beyond disappointed.
Well, not a good day.
"At Scribner Creek, Parker and his grandpa arrive from town to find the crew has prepared a birthday barbeque for him.
" Hi, Grandpa.
Hello, everybody.
Hey, how you doing? How you doing? We're here to celebrate.
Hey Parker, we got a surprise for you.
Wow.
(LAUGHS) Happy birthday, Parker.
I thought what if we could wind up with 1,000 ounces total for your birthday.
So I talked to the guys, we worked through our weekend off.
Hopefully this'll make up for your crashed truck and get us back on truck to our 2,000 ounces, so I hope your birthday present is in that pan right there.
I'm impressed.
And you guys have all gone way above and beyond so far this season, and you know, I appreciate that.
If you wanna weight it up, we'll take a look see now.
What did we need? 22 ounces.
We're at 978.
Put it on the scale, youngster, let's see what you've got for a birthday present.
15, there's 20, 21, 22 ounces.
Whoo! 1,000 ounces half season! Is that it? No, there's more.
Last season, what did we do? At the very end, 1,029.
29? So now that's the number.
29.
9! (ALL LAUGH AND CHEER) "Parker Schnabel is now 20 years old, he's just half way through his second season mining the Klondike, and he already has 1,030 ounces, worth nearly $1.
3 million.
" Truly, I'm impressed.
I mean, we just passed last season, 1,030 ounces, and we're halfway.
You guys have all been great to my grandson, I am really pleased to sit here with all of you people, because you are part of us.
You know? A team.
I'm glad you're here for this, Grandpa.
Oh, that's a happy moment for me too.
(LAUGHS) To the second half.
To the second half.
(HORN HONKS) "The crew has one more birthday surprise for their young boss.
" That's a Yukon rope swing right there, partner.
Whoo! Come on, let's do this.
Yeah, I mean, I just turned 20 and we just found 1,000 ounces of gold, what's more not to love? "On the next Gold Rush" "Tony Beets' crew took it apart.
" "But now they can't find the parts to rebuild the viking ship.
" That's all I could find.
"And the crew starts to lose faith in the project.
" I don't think this thing is ever gonna catch gold.
"Parker Schnabel sets out with his grandpa to buy his own claim.
" Tony won't realise he might be giving up $500,000 a year.
"But he's stunned by the price tag.
" What kind of price would you be looking for? $3 million.
Wow.
"Leaving Parker with an agonising decision.
" Take the gamble.
"And with the Hoffman's season on the brink of disaster, Dave Turin takes a commanding role.
" Do not dump that dirt.
I say we stop.
"Making a decision that pays off big time.
" This is the most gold I've ever seen.
" He's being unrealistic, a dreamer.
"He's running out of time to get his gold machine rebuilt before winter.
" "He's forced to cut corners.
" That's sketchy looking.
"And puts his crew in harm's way.
" Whoa, whoa, whoa! (CRASH) Blake! Blake! "At McKinnon Creek" Everybody clear! "Todd Hoffman is finally firing on all cylinders on new ground.
" We put all our cards on this cut, the size of ten football fields.
"But to keep their massive wash plant fed" I'm totally out of pay.
".
.
the crew is driven" 1,000 ounces here we come.
".
.
to the brink.
" Holy (BLEEP)! We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
"And at Scribner Creek" Rick, what's up? I got to (BLEEP) run.
".
.
disaster strikes.
" Parker, he's been in an accident! Parker! Parker! "Scribner Creek, the Klondike.
" What's going on? "The crew learns Parker's in trouble.
" Rick, what's up? I've got to (BLEEP).
Ron, can you run load trucks for me? What's going on? Parker, he's been in an accident.
Come on.
Something's wrong, I've just got to go find out what it is.
Parker! Parker! "Parker's been in a head-on collision on the road to Dawson.
" There's his truck, but where's Parker? I don't see him.
Parker, where are you at? Hey.
(DOG BARKS) Dude.
(BLEEP) I know.
Are you all right? Yeah, I'm OK.
You head do that to the steering wheel or your hands? Head.
Jeez.
She's so far in my (BLEEP) side of the road, I'm in the ditch when we hit.
Really? I'm in the (BLEEP) ditch when we hit.
Think that's fallen out? Yeah.
But I don't know if that's just the one piece, you know? The engine still runs and drives.
Yeah.
It's totalled.
Hey, last year, you know, I came up here pretty broke, really.
I had a old government surplus truck that was all beat up and it gave me a lot of problems, and this is the first new truck I've bought, you know? It's nice.
For the first time, I've actually started taking good care of my vehicle.
(SIGHS) Yeah.
Yeah, it's jacked.
"West, at McKinnon Creek half way through their mining season, and with their impressive last clean up of 99 ounces, worth nearly $120,000, the Hoffman crew now has a total of 235 ounces, worth over $280,000.
" OK, ready? Bring it in.
"Todd's now determined to get his highest gold count ever.
" I not only want 1,000 ounces, I want to smash it.
Everybody that laughed at us and all the crap we took - you know what? I want those guys to kiss our (BLEEP).
We got ourselves a monster here, it'll do 300 yards an hour, we got to come together as a team and keep this thing fed.
What do you think, Dave? Are we ready? This is our last chance, both you and I, we got way too much invested in this.
We either hit one out of the park or we're striking out.
We've got the team, we've got the ground, we've got the equipment now.
And I think we're gonna see this sluice box light up.
"The Hoffman crew has finished running the cuts beside their wash plant.
They're about to run the first pay from the higher cut at the far end of their claim.
" We're on the higher cut, but it's a mile haul.
Rock truckers, how fast can we bring it down here? As fast as you can dig it.
All right, man.
Dad, can you just say a little prayer for us? Yep.
Lord, give our rock truck drivers safety and help them to just speedily get that to the plant.
Lord, help the plant to just gobble it up and to put the gold in the box here, amen.
ALL: Amen.
Let's go.
We put all our cards on this cut, and let's hope it pays off.
"As the second half of the season begins, the Hoffman crew has one last chance to redeem themselves.
" Hey, Dave, fire up the generator.
(GENERATOR STARTS) Everybody clear! Tail conveyor coming on.
Screens coming on.
Thurber! Fire it up.
"Thurber starts the 14,000 litre a minute water pump.
The rock trucks haul paydirt from the higher cut.
And Jack loads his first bucket into Monster Red.
" Let's kick some (BLEEP).
I'm keeping count with this clicker, I push it every time I dump a load.
Monster Red needs 50 dumps per hour.
"50 bucket loads is 300 yards of paydirt.
To meet Monster Red's demand, Kevin and Logan have to deliver one truck load every six minutes.
And it's over a 1km round trip.
" I'm totally out of pay, that's it.
Ten-four.
RADIO: Yeah, I'm on my way.
(SINGING) Where is the edge, where is the edge? I don't wanna drive my truck off the cliff.
"Logan's rock truck backs up to the ramp.
" Phew, right there.
"And Jack immediately takes the pay.
" Right now, 39 loads an hour, that's roughly 230 yards, it's just not acceptable.
"60 minutes in, it's clear the two rock trucks just can't feed Monster Red enough paydirt.
" Hey, Kevin and Logan, I know you guys are trying, but you've gotta try a little bit harder.
It's just a long haul on this road and it's tight.
We can't even pass each other.
Well, let's put it this way - I knew some girls that could load faster than that.
Son of a "Jack is yelling down to us to get him pay, and, I mean, my foot's all the way to the floor, we can only go so fast and this is about it.
That was just way too close, Loge.
I've never had to run my truck like a Formula One racecar.
Holy (BLEEP)! .
.
"At McKinnon Creek Kevin and Logan are racing to keep their massive wash plant fed.
" Holy (BLEEP).
Kevin! Dude, that was too close, this is (BLEEP) stupid.
Let's go talk to Dave.
"With hauling stopped, Jack runs out of paydirt.
" Hey, Todd, I'm shutting her down.
You know, if they can't keep the pay coming, we can't feed the plant.
If I can't feed the plant, I can't get the gold, you know.
It's just just one thing, you know, after another, you know.
It's like a dog chasing its own tail.
I don't know what the answer is, but we're down.
Have you guys got a minute? What's up? Jack's been pushing us to get pay to that plant at a crazy rate.
It's the only way we're gonna make any money.
understand that.
OK, what's the turn around? Listen to me.
No, you listen to me.
What are the minutes? Come on, let's talk.
It's like a nine minute trip.
It's nine minutes? It's not gonna work.
We've gotta get the pay to the plant in a rock truck.
We can get pay down there, just not at that rate.
I'm not gonna drive.
You're refusing to drive - You need to take this seriously.
You're refusing to drive the trucks right now? I'm coming to you with a safety concern and you're not taking me seriously? Yeah, I'm telling you I'm not driving.
I'm not saying I'm not taking you seriously.
That's how feel.
Hey, just relax, let's work through this.
Don't start accusing me him and me.
Hey, calm down, calm down.
If it's that big a deal, then we'll solve it.
I don't care what you do.
Are you guys using your radios? Are you using the radios? I'm done.
"8km east at Eureka Creek After three months of gruelling work dismantling Tony Beets's $1 million dredge, Mike and Jerry are about to begin phase two - resurrecting the beast at its new home.
Dredges like Tony's dominated mining in the Yukon in the first half of the 20th century.
12 of these massive machines produced over 15 tons of gold that today would be worth over $650 million.
Tony is planning to mine like the old timers.
But his 75-year-old machine is hundreds of pieces.
Mike and Jerry assess the work that lies ahead.
" Well, this is some of the superstructure that holds the ladder up, isn't it? I don't remember the ends being bent on these eye-beams.
Do you, Mike? No.
I'm sure they got messed up unloading them.
You've got to be kidding me.
They'll have to be cut out and replaced.
Look at this mess.
Those sluice boxes aren't useable the way they are.
You know, those sluice boxes are kind of important, that's what catches the gold.
Right.
That'll have to be all cut apart and fixed back up.
It's like nobody gives a (BLEEP).
(HORNS HONK) "When the dredge convoy arrived" Ah! ".
.
Tony rushed to get everything offloaded.
" OK, there you go.
There we go! (LAUGHS) "His reckless style has left critical parts damaged.
Putting his rebuild even further behind schedule.
" Well, we need to start figuring out what it's going to take to get this thing back together.
We don't have much season left.
And the weather might turn on us here too, so We got pontoons, a week.
Superstructure, all the eye-beams, two weeks.
Bucket line stacker and all the electrical, two weeks.
I don't think there's a hope in hell that this'll be back together this season.
"Four hours late, Tony Beets arrives at Eureka Creek.
" (BLEEP) Tony.
I thought we were promised a lay down yard and a place to put the (BLEEP) thing back together.
It looks like a (BLEEP) junkyard.
This is gonna cost us time.
He's being unrealistic, a dreamer, it isn't gonna get done, This cost us probably weeks, the way this was handled and dumped off here.
You expect us to put this back together now? It's not a piece of cake, Tony.
"Tony takes Mike and Jerry to the cut where he plans to run the dredge by the end of the season.
" That's amazing.
Huh.
That right there is the reason we're here, we want that dredge running and getting that gold out the ground.
"Tony's master plan, level an area in his gold rich cut to fit together the pontoons, then they'll have to rebuild the superstructure and all the working parts of the dredge.
Once assembled, they'll flood the cut, float the dredge and begin mining for gold like they did 100 years ago.
" Let's get her back together, huh? Here we go.
"Tony's given Jerry and Mike the motivation they need to begin levelling the cut.
" Yeah, looking good, Jerry.
In that pile over there is the first pay pile that the dredge is gonna head for when she sets sail.
This is great.
If Tony's plan works, we might just have this dredge running this season.
"8km east at Scribner Creek Parker's shaken off his accident and got himself a second-hand pick up truck.
He's once again ready to roll.
Just three days away from his 20th birthday, he's already banked 915 ounces of gold, worth over $1 million.
And his grandpa is coming to the claim to celebrate.
" Last week's clean up was the best ever, you know, 230 ounces.
Yeah, that's damned good, and we're within touching distance of 1,000.
So everybody's working hard and I think we're really gonna do it.
"But halfway through the season, he's still 85 ounces short of where he needs to be to hit his 2,000 ounce, $2.
4 million goal.
" Hey, what up, youngster? How are you doing? Good, good.
So I want to have 1,000 ounces by the time my grandpa gets here, that's three days.
Think we can get it by then? If we push hard, nothing breaks, there's a chance.
Let's just run her hard.
We'll push it as hard as we can.
Thanks, dude.
Yeah, good luck on this one, man.
Parker wants to push for 1,000 ounces by the time his grandpa gets here.
I think that'd be great.
Not only would it be great for him, I think it'd be a great moral booster for the whole crew.
It's gonna be a challenge, but it'd definitely be the icing on the cake for his birthday, there's no doubt about that.
Gee! Hit the button.
Hit it! .
.
"At Scribner Creek, Parker's crew pushes to hit 1,000 ounces before Grandpa John shows up to celebrate his grandson's 20th birthday.
But suddenly there's a major problem with the wash plant.
" Hit the button, hit it! You at the bypass? Yeah.
"The conveyor belt that feeds paydirt into the plant has torn lengthways.
Clogging the feeder and spilling gold rich paydirt everywhere.
" I bet you that belt's just coiled up in that pre-wash right now.
And then, if you come underneath it, you can see the tear starts down there at the patch, it goes all the way up to the head wheel and all the way back down to the hopper.
(BLEEP) It's the whole length of it.
(BLEEP) Something caught it somewhere for it to rip like that.
It wouldn't be a huge deal but we don't have a spare.
We're down until we get it replaced, basically.
There's no way you can repair this, and I know Gene's been after Parker for quite some time to get a spare belt.
He finally talked him into it but I don't think it'll be here for about another three or four days.
Right now, we're totally dead in the water.
Well, if it's not gonna be here for a while Call Max and see what we've got.
"Parker is shut down, all he can do now is a clean up and hope he hits his midseason goal of 1,000 ounces, worth $1.
2 million.
" Oh, we've got him.
I think we've got there's gold in here along the bar.
All along this piece of iron on the back side there's gold.
There's gold in here.
I think this could be a good one, I think we've got that 1,000 ounces.
"To hit 1,000 ounces, Parker needs only 85 ounces.
" 63.
7.
Should have been better than that.
"63.
7 ounces brings Parker's total to 978 ounces, worth nearly $1.
2 million.
He's still 22 short of the 1,000 ounces he was hoping to present to his grandpa.
" Hey guys, so I just weighed that gold up and it ends up we're a little short.
We're only at 978.
I know you guys all busted your ass, but it is what it is.
Why don't you guys take the rest of the weekend off? And I'll see you guys out here on Monday.
Man, I really wanted to show my grandpa 1,000 ounces, but I guess you can't have everything.
"West, at Eureka Creek, Tony Beets is about to transport the first of his five pontoons down to the rebuild site.
" (WHISTLES) Can we do anything for you, Tony? Right, it needs a crane to pick that thing up, three piece of equipment on it, you stand a better chance of damaging them pontoons.
"To save time, Tony's using a loader and excavator to lift the 24-ton pontoon onto the trailer.
" The worst thing is dropping them and getting somebody hurt.
Just gotta be careful with them and see what happens, I guess.
Easy.
Easy.
Uh-oh.
(BLEEP) Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
(CRASH) "Tony's rushed approach isn't going to work.
And run to the back? Yeah.
"Tony will use two loaders either side of the pontoon to share the weight and lift it onto the back of the trailer.
" Keep going.
That's it.
Back it up.
Slowly.
Stop.
(BLEEP) That wasn't too bad at all.
"At McKinnon Creek After a close call in their rock trucks on the narrow road to Monster Red, Kevin and Logan refused to drive.
Mine boss Dave Turin needs to come up with a solution, and fast.
" This haul isn't working, I've gotta get up there and see what's going on.
This is just not wide enough for two trucks.
Dave to Todd.
How's it going? These roads are too dangerous, the trucks aren't gonna be able to pass each other.
I don't know what the solution is.
Dave, meet me over here by this cut.
I'll be there in a minute.
Hey, I got an idea, Dave.
What do you think? We've got to build a new road and connect the corner of the cut to the wash plant.
We put a culvert in there.
All right.
And then this trench, you get the dozer and cut the road in.
A one-way road system.
That just might work.
I'll be damned.
"Todd's plan, build a bridge over their drainage system then move thousands of tons of dirt into a trench and form a new road directly to the wash plant.
This will create a one-way system that keeps the rock trucks from having to pass each other.
" We're gonna build a paydirt super highway.
This is gonna be a straight shot from the largest cut we've ever done to the largest wash plant in the Klondike.
Put in a culvert.
We've got a real sophisticated system for our water.
It's in a closed circuit, and this culvert will allow us to get the paydirt and not go through our water system.
"With the culvert, or drainage pipe, now in place, Dave begins work on the rest of the road.
" Looking good.
So this'll be access to our cut and access to our wash plant, so I've just gotta build it, build it right, and then be done with it.
This should solve the problem.
This should get the paydirt to the plant and in the box.
This road, this is gonna be a good idea.
"East, at Eureka Creek Tony Beets trucks in the first of his five 24-ton pontoons to the cut where he plans to reconstruct his gold dredge, piece by piece.
" I think it'll take probably a week to roll the pontoons together.
This isn't ever gonna happen.
"To make up for lost time, Tony demands they position and attach all five pontoons in just one day.
" Somebody's got to.
Jerry, up! "Jerry lifts the first pontoon off the trailer.
" That (BLEEP) sketchy looking! It needs to go that way.
(CRASH) Mike! Mike! .
.
"At Eureka Creek "Tony Beets and crew position the first 24-ton pontoon of his gold dredge.
" (CRASH) Mike! Mike! Man, that was close.
It was like the brake didn't hold.
Just got to be careful.
24 ton coming down on a person isn't gonna be a pretty sight.
The brake didn't hold on the crane.
Probably I didn't have the engine revved up tight enough and the brake released and down the pontoon came.
We'll just keep it revved up more the next time.
"Tony decides not to take any more chances.
He calls in a second crane to help manoeuvre the massive pontoons.
" All these three quarter bolts have to line up with those three quarter bolts, and there's only about a 16th of an inch clearance here, so the two have to be lined up almost perfectly to slide the new bolts through.
Well, I think it's going to be a challenge, there's 200 bolts on that side to line up.
There's not much room for error.
Down a little bit.
I have to go get washers, so don't yell.
What are we gonna do about this? It looks like it got bent when it got shipped.
Ah, not quite as planned, but it's going together and that's what counts.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I'm surprised.
I didn't think it would go this good.
Oh, I believe in you.
Argh! Oh! (ALL LAUGH) Oh, he's elbowed my throat.
That went so much faster than I ever would have guessed it did, we actually gained some days here.
If the rest of the stuff goes together, it might be done this fall.
"At McKinnon Creek the Hoffman crew has connected their wash plant to the higher cut, with their new paydirt super highway.
" Looks like you about got it, Dave.
Hey.
It's looking good, buddy.
All right, man.
It's looking good.
"They've lost two days of mining, but Kevin and Logan can now make up for lost time.
" Come on, let's go.
We got one way traffic now, they're headed one way around here and they move around the plant, come back up the old road and so I think we've solved the problem.
Dave turned our single lane dirt road into basically the autobahn.
We're actually making way better time now because it is a shorter route.
It's great.
Stand back.
"Thurber fires up Monster Red.
" Now we're getting somewhere.
Who in their right mind wouldn't wanna be here? You know? Getting sunshine, everything's working well.
I love this, I love it, beautiful.
It's fandabbydozy.
Well, we've been running for an hour.
And these guys are doing a great job, every time you look there's another truck load of material, and I'll take as many of them as you can give me.
"So far, the rock trucks have tried and failed to deliver 300 yards of paydirt an hour.
" Hey, Dad, what bucket is that? That's 51, so that's 300 yards an hour.
Good job, Dad, keep it going.
Yeah! Over 300 yards an hour, hopefully we can keep this going, 1,000 ounces here we come.
"At Scribner Creek the replacement belt for the broken conveyor has arrived.
But after failing to reach his mid-season goal of 1,000 ounces, Parker has left town and given his crew the weekend off.
But Chris refuses to quit.
" Hey, you guys got a minute? Yeah.
Yep.
I know that Parker said to shut everything down this weekend, take a break, but I've got to thinking on this.
You know Parker just smashed his truck, right? Yeah.
The birthday's coming up, his grandpa's coming in, I crunched some numbers, and I think if we work through this weekend, we can hit 1,000 ounces for his birthday.
What do you think? Is it worth taking a shot? Yeah, I don't see why we couldn't do that, I'm sure it'd make him happy.
He's bummered about his truck, so Yeah.
Right.
Sounds good.
If we can pull this off, I think it'd be a tremendous birthday present.
What other 20-year-old kid gets 1,000 ounces of gold for his birthday, right? "Parker's crew is only 22 ounces short of 1,000.
But before they can start running paydirt, they'll have to first replace their entire conveyor belt, and Parker's birthday is just two days away.
" Let's get to work.
Come on, let's make it happen.
Come on.
She's good to go.
Fire it up! Yeah! That's it! Whoo! Now you're talking.
Yee-haw! The whole plan's coming together.
Monday, we ought to have 1,000 ounces.
"At McKinnon Creek, the Hoffman crew has spent weeks prepping the higher cut for a big second half of the season.
" That cut's the size of ten football fields, so hopefully we didn't make the wrong decision to go up there and strip that.
"After running for just three days this week, Todd is about to find out if the higher cut will give him a chance of a 1,000 ounce, $1.
2 million season.
" It's good, but it's not as good as I was expecting.
Put it that way.
All right.
The proof's in the pudding now.
Our last clean out was our biggest, we're coming off a 100 ounce clean up, and I'm hoping that this one is even better.
Give me the good news.
22.
74.
Hmm.
"22.
7 ounces is worth just $28,000.
Half way through the mining season, Todd's gold total is just 258 ounces, worth $310,000.
" That was 7,000 yards, Dad.
That should have been about 60 ounces.
(SIGHS) This is stupid, we can't do that.
A poor box of yards, that's all it is.
We'll go bankrupt if we keep going like that.
This is not good, Dad.
"After shutting down for two days to build a new road to their plant, the higher cut just isn't paying out.
" If we don't straighten this out, we're gonna be out of here and be looking really stupid.
We can't survive on four bucks a yard, it's gotta be ten bucks a yard or we can't even make it.
So am I disappointed? Yeah, I'm a little beyond disappointed.
Well, not a good day.
"At Scribner Creek, Parker and his grandpa arrive from town to find the crew has prepared a birthday barbeque for him.
" Hi, Grandpa.
Hello, everybody.
Hey, how you doing? How you doing? We're here to celebrate.
Hey Parker, we got a surprise for you.
Wow.
(LAUGHS) Happy birthday, Parker.
I thought what if we could wind up with 1,000 ounces total for your birthday.
So I talked to the guys, we worked through our weekend off.
Hopefully this'll make up for your crashed truck and get us back on truck to our 2,000 ounces, so I hope your birthday present is in that pan right there.
I'm impressed.
And you guys have all gone way above and beyond so far this season, and you know, I appreciate that.
If you wanna weight it up, we'll take a look see now.
What did we need? 22 ounces.
We're at 978.
Put it on the scale, youngster, let's see what you've got for a birthday present.
15, there's 20, 21, 22 ounces.
Whoo! 1,000 ounces half season! Is that it? No, there's more.
Last season, what did we do? At the very end, 1,029.
29? So now that's the number.
29.
9! (ALL LAUGH AND CHEER) "Parker Schnabel is now 20 years old, he's just half way through his second season mining the Klondike, and he already has 1,030 ounces, worth nearly $1.
3 million.
" Truly, I'm impressed.
I mean, we just passed last season, 1,030 ounces, and we're halfway.
You guys have all been great to my grandson, I am really pleased to sit here with all of you people, because you are part of us.
You know? A team.
I'm glad you're here for this, Grandpa.
Oh, that's a happy moment for me too.
(LAUGHS) To the second half.
To the second half.
(HORN HONKS) "The crew has one more birthday surprise for their young boss.
" That's a Yukon rope swing right there, partner.
Whoo! Come on, let's do this.
Yeah, I mean, I just turned 20 and we just found 1,000 ounces of gold, what's more not to love? "On the next Gold Rush" "Tony Beets' crew took it apart.
" "But now they can't find the parts to rebuild the viking ship.
" That's all I could find.
"And the crew starts to lose faith in the project.
" I don't think this thing is ever gonna catch gold.
"Parker Schnabel sets out with his grandpa to buy his own claim.
" Tony won't realise he might be giving up $500,000 a year.
"But he's stunned by the price tag.
" What kind of price would you be looking for? $3 million.
Wow.
"Leaving Parker with an agonising decision.
" Take the gamble.
"And with the Hoffman's season on the brink of disaster, Dave Turin takes a commanding role.
" Do not dump that dirt.
I say we stop.
"Making a decision that pays off big time.
" This is the most gold I've ever seen.