Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 1, Episode 2 - Gold, Guns and Bears - full transcript

Six greenhorns are risking it all.

You're about to lose your house.

Don't lose faith.

To strike gold in Alaska.

We got gold!

And save their families.

Huh.

Harder. Harder. Harder.

Get the frig back.

Now. As they try to set up their operation.

Jack Hoffman loses control.



Hold on.

And they have to learn to live with each other.

Shut up and get out of my cabin. Now.

As Todd Hoffman and his team come face to face

With the reality of life in the wilderness.

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.

Whoo.

Todd Hoffman and his father Jack
have sold everything they can.

And are staking it all on a gold claim in Alaska.

Who's that man. Yahoo.

We've gambled a lot and, uh, It better be there.

As far as gold mining goes, this is it.

It's gonna be tough.
There's no plan B.

We can't even afford plan A.



We thank you for this moment in Jesus's name.

Lord have mercy. You know,
we have to win on this one.

One week ago they left their home
in Sandy Oregon for Alaska with
four of their closest buddies.

All have been hit hard by the economic downturn.

To be on welfare, food stamps, and, you know.
We've done that, and I'm done with that.

I got to make something happen.

It's weird to say "Do or Die",
but it's very crucial that we find gold.

It's a very tense situation.
If we can find gold, everything's great.

If we don't, we're in trouble.

Alaska's mining season is five months.

But the Hoffmans can only afford three.
They need to find gold before their money runs out.

If I fail here, I'm screwed.
I mean, fully screwed.

So. I fully intend to dig gold out of that hole.

Their claim is 160 wild and rugged acres under
the Chilkat Mountains in southeast Alaska.

It's a inhospitable wilderness, where they'll have
to learn how to survive alongside the locals.

There's an estimated 15 million dollars
of untouched gold on their claim.

They plan to be mining here until the ground freezes.

Before they start prospecting,
they have to set up a place to live.

Jack can't wait to get moving.

Got to strip this down. Get it smooth.
So we can build our camp up here.

First step, is to clear and level the ground.
The good news is there's an
old D-6 dozer on the site.

Abandoned here by the miner they
leased the claim from. The bad news is:
It hasn't been started for three years.

We're gonna hot wire it
cause we don't have a key.

It's not like the owner is going to complain.

This isn't fast, but we'll use it
trying to get on his mine to mine.

Sure, I don't have any problem with that.
I don't think he will either.

And if he did, the nearest State Trooper
is hours away. Even if he can make
it through the snow drifts.

That's good.

-Enough.
-That's close enough.

-Okay. We're gonna try it.
-(SNAP)
-Whoa. Oh.

We must have them wrong.

-Uh oh.
-Wait. No. We got it wrong here.

Okay. We're gonna try here.

Aw. We got to charge it again.

It looks like winter temperatures of
20 below might have done more
than just kill the dozer's battery.

After two hours, the final hope
lies in the bottom of Jack's toolbox.

Squirt a little bit right now.

Starting spray. Highly flammable ether.
It's used to help cold engines ignite.

Give it a try.

Pray. Come on. Pray.

(Click. Clunk. chuga chuga chuga)

(Engine fires up.)

Wahoo.

Woo. Woo. Hooray.

No guts. No glory.

Yeeah. Woo.

Jack makes quick work of clearing the
snow where the guys want to set up camp.

That's two little doggers.

But the job has just begun.

Basically, we got to get this muck out of here. Yeah.

We got a lot of dirt
to move. A lot of dirt

So. I don't know. Kinda
working out the plan as they go.

The team wants to bring in their RV's.

But the D6 dozer won't be
enough to shift all the mud.

They need their heavy equipment.
The 270 excavator, and the even bigger 400.

We got a lot of work left to do
before we actually start mining.

Yeah. Suck her up. A little more.

You're good.

It's spring in Alaska.

And with two days of good weather
and hard work, Todd, Jack and the
team finish the solid base for their camp.

The center piece is their forty foot
semi trailer holding everything
the miners need to live here.

This is big for us to get this trailer in here.

It's our kitchen. And it holds all the supplies
that we been living without for a few days.

It's even holding the wood to build a cabin.

I'm super excited cause all our stuff's here.
We can actually set up camp.
And we're ready to rock.

Now. The miners can also bring in their
homes for the summer. Four RVs.

Doesn't look like much but that's our home.

For a while.

This is really a key point for me.
Because we're here.

They've made a start on the camp.

But with the ground thawed,
the mining season's already started.

The Hoffmans have called the crew together.

They think they know how to strike it rich here.

Thirty years ago, Jack mined in Alaska.

And for two years, Todd has been
researching the best way to find gold.

Gold naturally occurs in the earth's crust.

In the Chilkat Mountains, geological processes
have forced the gold into quartz veins.

Over thousands of years, erosion has
washed the gold down the water
courses at Porcupine Creek.

Eighteen times heavier than water,
the gold has settled along the old riverbeds.

Jack and Todd will be targeting these deposits.

On this claim there's ancient river channels.

And inside each one of these channels,
there's an actual pay streak of gold.

Then these pay streaks are basically a
streak, coming down the mountain.

And that is where the gold has
settled, into this pay streak, so

That's where we got to get down to.
And that's what we gotta find.

There are three ancient river channels at Porcupine.

Each potentially with a pay streak.
One runs right behind the camp.

And that's where Todd wants to
look for the fine gold deposits.

Although there is a bigger prize.
Along these ancient channels are waterfalls.

At the bottom of these, big nuggets have collected
over thousands of years. These concentrated
deposits of gold are known as "Glory holes".

So the water just dropped it in there.
Left it in this basin down here.

That is what you call a Glory Hole.
All you have to do is get down and dig it.

Glory Holes are harder to find.
Over thousands of years, the action
of erosion has covered them up.

So the bottom of an ancient waterfall,
could now be up to 100 feet underground.

Whereas the fine gold in a pay streak,
could be just feet from the surface.

Jack wants to go straight for the Glory Hole.
But Todd has decided that they are
going to play it slow, and steady.

We got to try to locate that pay streak, because
that's where our moneys gonna be. Right there.

The Hoffmans aren't the first people to have
prospected for gold at Porcupine Creek.

One hundred years ago, this was a thriving
gold town. 200 prospectors lived here.

It was one of the most successful gold fields in Alaska.

But devastating floods, and falling gold prices
brought an end to Porcupine's gold rush.

However, for the last 25 tears, one man has
grown rich here. His name, is John Schnabel.

Right across the street from each other.
Our claims butt right up together.

The legend is, this guy's got so much gold.

He doesn't even know what to do with it.

With such a successful miner just across the creek.

Jack and Todd want to see what they can learn.

I'm hoping he'll help a guy who doesn't
know how to mine. How about 6 guys
that don't know how to mine.

Listen. Don't say anything stupid over there.

Ah, well. Probably want to do that for you.

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

This is the top stuff that's in that
dirt you're looking at over there.

Seems even John Schnabel's pockets
are stuffed with jars of gold.

You've got a few pieces that's
a little bit bigger than flakes.

That's what you get down on the bottom.

Sometimes you get into an
area that gold is bigger than that.

-I like the sound of that, John.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.

I really like the sound of that.

Haw. You got that right. My wife says
that I can't hear a drop in the jar,
I'm not interested. Haw Haw.

-Nice looking gold.
-It is nice.

You get to bedrock, you get the heavy gold.

When that area got hilled out, it was a hundred
feet. It took us two years to get to bedrock.

Then it's a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

You just have to have enough money to
stick with it long enough to get there.

Cause they said "No guts. No glory". Haw haw.

No guts. No glory.
That's right.

The revelation, that it took John
Schnabel two years to find a large
deposit of gold, is a bombshell.

He dug for two years, in that one spot.
Two hundred thousand dollars worth of digging.

I have the faith that, we're in ground that
we think is really good. You know, geez .

It'd better be. We don't have the time.
You know, our time's running out.
And so we have to go for it.

Todd and Jack have only got enough
money to mine for three months.

They've spent 150 thousand dollars
on equipment, and can't wait
two years to hit pay dirt.

They have to find gold, before this season is out.

-Up ahead
-Don't walk in there.
-The search for gold at the claim begins.

How do you really know that there's gold here.

The all important mining equipment arrives.

Oh. No.

And the local inhabitants
get up close and personal.

A bear's not gonna get in between my son and I.

(Gun loading)
That I guarantee you.

Todd and Jack Hoffman are gold mining in Alaska,
and have been hit by a bombshell from
neighbour and fellow miner John Schnabel.

He told us he dug for two years.

We don't have the time.
You know, our time's running out.

They only have enough money to mine for
three months. And will be going home before
the end of this summer's mining season,
if they don't find gold.

Todd's plan is to look for a pay streak of gold
in the old course of Porcupine Creek, which
used to run behind the camp.

Todd thinks fine gold deposits will
have settled into the old river bed.

Don't go down in there.
Don't walk in there.

Kind of a dangerous place.
But I'll spend a few seconds.

With a hole dug, they're going to hand for
gold to see if there's any sign of the pay streak.

A little bit of color but not much.
Not what we were expecting.

I've seen some little specks,
but not enough there..

Really, uh, turned my crank.

I know we got to just keep trying.
I know the gold's here.

Hey. Get out of there.

Every second is dangerous.
Get outta there. Grab it. Quick.

It's thirty years since Jack mined in Alaska.
It seems like he won't let anything
get in the way of finding gold now.

He's a lone wolf.
He's a maverick.

He just wants to dig gold
and stuff. He's ready to die.

Oh, ah. That's scary.

I take risks, you know.
If you don't take risks, you don't win.

With no sign of a pay streak,
Jack rushes off to dig another hole.

Jack.

Did I hit it? Aw. Crap.

Check your surroundings before
you get in any equipment.

Too bad for him. It's his own truck.

Todd has made Jim Thurber the site safety officer.

A job that's proving testy,
with a crew of rookie miners.

It's like we're on a vacation, but this is deadly.

Yeah. Well. It's just one of those things.
You get old and you do dumb things.

That's someone smashed.

Equipment takes them out like that.

That's death, So. There's nothing funny about that.

Survival in Alaska isn't just about
avoiding Jack in an excavator.

The crew needs to set up
everything they brought with them.

We have to have an operating camp.
We gotta eat, drink, and sleep here.

We need water, electricity.

Hot showers, toilets.

We're pretty much off the grid.

They're putting in five septic waste systems,
and are using seven generators to power
the entire site through 3000 feet of cable.

But they need to tap into
Alaska's natural resources as well.

We don't have a well or anything.
We gotta grab water out of this little spring.

Getting up. Walking down the hall to a
shower isn't happening here. So

Yeah. We're kinda spoiled with
what we have at home but, uh

It's educational.

The two 500 gallon water tanks will provide
enough water for one week. It's all hands
on deck to turn this claim into a home.

Pastor Mike Halstead is turned his
attention to putting a roof over their heads.

He brought more than a ton of timber from
Oregon to build a house for the community.

We'll have a big porch and there'll be a big living room
that'll just be a community room where everybody can
come in and have lunch or hang out when it's raining.

It's gonna have a wood front, a wood back
and wood walls and then a canvas top.

And so the bear's gonna have to
be over eight feet tall to reach in.

Mike's taking precautions, for good reason.

Out here there's a food chain,
and we're not on top anymore.

With the advent of spring, Porcupine Creek's
bears are waking from hibernation.

Oh, there's bears. Black bears.

-Oh. Look at that.
-There he is right there.

To the left of that field there.
They're coming out in the middle of the day.

The valley is home to 400 black and grizzly bears.
They can smell food from five miles away.
And after six months of sleep, they are hungry.

I think we're okay right here.

That's a..

Dang it. I mean, there's bears
everywhere around here.

It's particularly worrying, because there
are 3 kids on site. Todd Hoffman's sons
Hudson, age 9, and Hunter age 11.

And Greg Remsburg's boy Brandon, who's 10.

Two thousand miles south in
Oregon, their moms are concerned.

I'm nervous, about the boys being caught off
guard by a bear. My son could be walking over
and right there is a 500 pound grizzly bear.

Jimmy Dorsey is also worried.
He's the only member of the crew
who hasn't got an RV to sleep in.

All he has is his tent.

The bears come down this, this hillside.
This is where they got to stalk us from.
This is it there.

As the team is about to bed down
for the night, Dorsey hears a sound.

Uh, there's something right here in these bushes.

(Growl) Oh! Look at that.

You guys...

Dorsey has seen a bear.

-Where?
-It was running too.
It's right there by those trees..

-How big was that bear, man?
-He's probably about five, six hundred pounds.
-Dude

You know, I haven't seen one fox.
I haven't seen one deer. I haven't seen one elk.

No moose, nothing.
All I've seen is three bears so far.

-At the mine site.
-Yeah.

That's just..I mean, It's like
nothing lives here except bears.

For every one you see, there's ten
out there you haven't seen yet.

So who knows how many are wandering around.

An attack from a 600 pound bear could be fatal.

The guys have to check the
camp to see where it's gone.

This is a 338 ultra mag.

Look at this.

Todd's got an AR-15 assault rifle.

My god. I didn't know you had that.

And he's taking the Gator, hoping the sound of the engine will scare the bear off.

Right there.

See the eyes.

-See that there.
-Tracks there dad.

This is it?
(loads rifle)
-Yeah.

Those ones right there, by the willow trees.
I think this is a grizzly bear.

Right there. Right there.
There's the mother.

This is a bad hunt Jimmy. He's got really
good eyes at night. And you can't
see him through the binoculars.

The bear isn't in the camp. But this is
his territory, and he won't have gone far.

Sleeping in a tent doesn't
seem like such a good idea.

I was thinking about staying,
maybe in the truck tonight.
Or the trailer. I don't know.

In the semi?

That bear's still out there. So just
try to keep these doors shut and
if anything happens, give me a holler.

Ooh. Todd. Is that you?

Todd.

Alaska is home to most of America's bears.

98% of the countries grizzlies, and a hundred thousand black bears live here.

The Hoffmans are mining in the Chilkat valley,
an area with both kinds. On their claim,
bears outnumber miners 3 to 1.

At Porcupine creek, a vital piece
of mining equipment is arriving.

Step by step. We're getting closer to the gold.

It's the shaker.

Shakers are the first step in recovering gold.
They shake the gold bearing
grabbers from big boulders.

Back in Oregon, the team spent 3 months
creating their very own machine before
shipping it to Porcupine Creek.

Now Jack's in charge of the final step.
Getting it safely off the trailer.

The shaker weighs in at 22 thousand lbs.

Jimmy.

The miners can only lift it with the 400 excavator.

All Jack needs to do is lift the shaker a
few inches, so the truck can drive away.

Now. Is the other side in?

Just hold on until he's back.

But Jack's getting impatient.

Heading your way.

Whoa. Whoa. whoa. Hey.

You know you're all jihad.

-Well yeah, I
-I wouldn't give, I would have,
I would just square it up.

That cable's right.

And you put the generator right in
the way. Does that look right to you?

I don't know why you
people leave stuff in the way.

Listen. We didn't plan on doing this.

Well. Move it out of the way.

But Jack can't wait for
Todd to move the generator.

All, hell no.

You got it all screwed up.

Now what?

Before anyone can stop him,
Pastor Mike Halstead jumps up to
reconnect the cable to the jaws of the 400.

Mike.

That's straight teetering.
Wedge out Mike. Out Mike. Wait.

With such a huge weight,
the jaws are at breaking point.

(cables are heard straining)

Hold on.

Aw, shoot. Listen.

Can you come down a little bit. See if it'll set.

Down. What the heck happened?

You got hooked under there.

Fortunately, the springs are an easy fix.

But if the welds on the shaker break,
it's going to be a major setback.

-What?
-Let me get the 270.

Todd wants to take half the weight with the smaller
excavator. But Jack's in no mood to be helped.

Wait.

Tell him to start it up. Get it out.

Rev out.

Lift. Go go go go go.

(strain can be heard increasing)

(Click)

There you go.

Good lord.

Know what. It's off the trailer and it's fixed.
But that could have been really bad.

Everybody's got a different way of doing things.
You know. I've got my way, which I think is right.

Just gotta get done.

The shaker is the first section of the team's
wash plant, which will separate gold from dirt.

Todd and Dorsey have to go on a thousand
mile journey to Anchorage to buy the last
and most important piece. A duplex jig.

It's owned by the man the Hoffman's have
leased their claim from. Earl Foster.

This jig, without that, we're sunk.

If we don't have this thing, we're not
gonna get about half the gold.

But Todd's short of cash.
And duplex jigs don't come cheap.

I don't have the money I need.
Thirty thousand dollars.

Todd's only hope is if Earl is
prepared to make a deal.

-What's plan B?
I have no plan B, at this point.

Back at the mine, Jack's supposed to be
digging small holes to locate the fine
gold that the duplex jig will process.

But he's getting gold fever.

I'm so anxious to go mining I can't hardly stand it.

He's abandoned Todd's plan to search
for the pay streak, and is digging
all over the claim to find a glory hole.

We need the money, you know.
It's not a question of wanting it. We need it.

Todd just got to trust me.
I'm the guy that really knows how to mine.

Although a glory hole could yield a million
dollars worth of nuggets, you have to dig much
deeper holes to locate an ancient waterfall.

It could be 5 feet away, you know.

Jack's going on an old miner's intuition. On a
160 acre claim, the odds are stacked against him.

I'm gonna do another one, right here.

24 hours down the Alcan highway, Todd and
Dorsey face tough negotiations to buy the
duplex jig from Earl Foster, the claim owner.

Hey Earl. This is it, huh. Wow.

Duplex jigs are vital, because they're
the final stage in a wash plant.

Underneath the jig, diaphragms pulsate
water through a bed of steel shot,
washing the heavier fine gold from the dirt.

Sixty percent of the Hoffman's
gold may just come this way.

Tell me how this works, Earl.
This is a rubber diaphragm.
It pulsates the water?

It allows the heavier particles to
sift down in between those slats
and pile them down here.

You get black sand and gold.

I hate to ask man. I'm running out of money.
Would you take half down, and maybe
half at the end of the season?

Up ahead, Jack Hoffman's new plan
for finding gold comes into question.

How do you know that there's gold here?

And Porcupine's bears pay the camp a visit.

Todd Hoffman has traveled to Anchorage
to meet Earl Foster, the man he
has leased his gold claim from.

This is it, huh.

Earl has a vital piece of mining equipment for sale.
The duplex jig will help Todd and his team get
up to sixty percent of their gold from the dirt.

Okay.

The problem is, Todd doesn't
have the money to buy it,

I hate to ask, man. I'm running out of money.
Would you take half down and then
maybe half at the end of the season.

No problem. Whatever come
good for you is okay with me.

Hey man. I appreciate it.

Whoa. Okay. hang on.

That's another 15 thousand dollars Todd
Hoffman has spent on the gold mining dream.

Thanks pal.

With the same again due at the end of the
season, the need to strike gold just got greater.

(Honk, honk.)

A thousand miles later, they are back
at the claim with the all important jig.

Here. Yeah man.

Here it is.

Duplex jig.

This is good to see right here.

Todd's returned to find out Jack has been digging
holes seemingly at random, all over the claim.

Just digging holes here and there.
That's not gonna help us any.

Hey. This is the prize.

Todd wants to know why his dad has
thrown out his idea to find the pay streak.

I thought we agreed we were gonna work that.

-Yeah, well..
-Try and find the pay streak over towards the creek.

I know. I know.

I think we ought to get a kind
of a slow and steady plan.

-That don't find a
-How can we work that?

We need the gold. We need the money,

The glory hole has the most gold in it for right now.

Once we're able to pay for the bills,
I can relax, and go for a pay streak.
But right now, we got, we gotta get the money.

Alright.

Well, go your route but

I don't know. I just don't know
if that's the best route to go.

Now, with Todd's OK, Jack's got everyone panning
the holes he's dug searching for a glory hole.

You get any?

-Not much
-Eh?
-Not much.

Just a few pieces.

It's hard work, and it's taking it's toll on the team.

I know there's something wrong with this hand.
Maybe it's just yellow rocks. And the worst
part about it, gold isn't yellow. all the time.

Gold is brown. Gold is pink. Gold has a reddish color.
Then to top it all off, I'm color blind.

Hey Jack.

How do you know that there's gold here?

-How do I know.
-Yeah.

Well. I know there's gold.

-I'm seeing little pieces, but I mean
-It's kinda
-How do we really know if there's gold here?

You keep panning, until you can see it.

I don't know really how to feel.

Maybe I'm just a little bit
naive or something. I don't know.

The search for the glory hole might not be paying off.

But at least they're making progress on the camp.

Okay now. Hold it right there.

Come on man. Hurry up.

Eh?
Ahh. Ooyah.

Good.

Holy mother.

In just one week, Mike Halstead has worked tirelessly
and almost finished the first house on the claim.

He's brought everything out here to Alaska.

We're going to have a counter,
and then the sink right here.

And has even built a room out the back of his
community cabin, for Todd and his family.

And this your little love nest here.

Having uh, Mike as a Pastor
and part of our team is good.

He's a monster. A manimal.

There we go.

The final detail makes Mike's cabin bear proof,
a point not lost on Realtor Jimmy Dorsey.

Who's worried his tent isn't bear proof.

He's been inspired to build his
own cabin from the logs on site.

As his wife Joy, back in Oregon, is worried
about the safety of their kids, Ella and Hannah.

I don't want to be in the middle of
nowhere..being attacked by a wild animal.

That's terrifying.

The problem is
Dorsey has no experience in building houses.

I put "Look Joy. A solid door".

So. I think that she's going to be happy with this.
And the kids are gonna love it. It's still a tent
technically because it has a canvas top.

That's about all. The tent characteristics of it.

I think it's bear proof.

And it will need to be.
The bears are getting bolder by the minute.

I got a griz. Right here. Right here.

He's right in our deal.

Ho. Hey. Ho. Hello.

Crack. Crackle.

Greg Remsburg's 10 year old son, Brandon,
has just seen a grizzly bear.

He's right in our deal.

It's the first bear that's come
into camp in broad daylight.

And it's just yards from
where they're eating breakfast.

Their safety is now under threat.

Where'd he go?

Did he go up?

-What's he doing in here?
-There he is. Right there.

Coming right in here.

Here. I'm gonna scare him. Just a second.

-Oh. What are you do...
-Bang

-Man. That gun is messed up.
-This is exactly what I thought would happen.

And they would get really used to us.

He'll be back.

-Graham crackers dude.
-Hey hey.
-His favorite.

Food is one of the main reasons
bears and humans come face to face.

In the wilderness, it should be kept in airtight
containers, or at least 12 feet in the air

If food is left out, a bear will come back later.

-That's not funny.
-Well. That's your kids leaving crap out, man.

-You left your crackers
-Hey Cubby.
-What?

You left your crackers out.
There was a grizzly bear. At the fire.

Check your graham crackers. He was 15
feet from us having coffee this morning.

-You gotta pick that stuff up.
-You shut up and get out of my cabin.

Now.

Get out of the cabin.

Before I throw you out.

As a camp, we all have responsibilities.

Greg has had a real fright. Like any father,
he wants to protect his son.

It's one thing to see him out
at a distance, running from us.

But it's another thing to have him sneak in
when you're having your morning coffee.

And take a little bag of
crackers, literally, 50 feet from you.

If our wives and kids are gonna spend
the summer here with us we
gotta make sure camp is safe.

That bear's not gonna get
in between my son and I.

(Click click)
That I guarantee ya.

You're allowed to shoot menacing bears
and so, um, I would say what happened
this morning was menacing.

Hey.

Thurber and I are gonna go make
sure that bear doesn't come back.

Okay. You guys stay in here and
keep the door locked. See you in a bit.

See ya later.

OK. Now I can leave.

Here's scat. Right here. Pretty fresh.
Yeah. And that's a trail.

Right down to our food supply right there.

I'm sleeping right down the hill in that trailer.

And they're nestled right up here in this hill.

-There's some scat right here.
-Geez.

This is his house.

You gotta (bleep) it up where he wants to move.

Take that ya (bleep).

(Bleep) test off me. Aah.

That oughta do it.
Take care of one of them anyway.

Greg has decided to call his wife Sandy.

-Hello
-Hi.

Brandon spotted a grizzly bear in camp today.

Oh my gosh. Yeah, I would like to talk with him.

-Hey mom.
-Hi Brandon.

Tell me the story about this
bear that you saw around camp.

It looked up at me and then it got up and walked away.

Whew.

Did it scare you at all.

I was a little freaked out at first.

You were freaked out but you weren't scared.

And dad and them were having coffee.

I just walked over to dad and said "Hey Dad. There's a bear".

As a mom my first job is to protect.

To, to not be there. To not be there
to be able to do that for him as his mom.

It's really hard.

There's nothing that I could have done in that instance.

-Means a lot to have him up here with you.
-Oh.

Damn little thing is all I have. To have my son.

Since Brandon spotted the grizzly bear
in camp, Todd and the guys have been
trying to secure a safety perimeter.

Now, a black bear has emerged from the
trees, just feet from Mike Halstead.

You guys stay back here till we give you a buzz.

I know there was a big black bear.
He was hanging around here the other day.

There's a bear about 200 yards up here.

Mike's the only member of the team with a bear tag.

The only one licensed to shoot.

We're not gonna wait around. It's also
getting dark and I don't want to have to
do this in half an hour when it's darker.

It's fresh. And it's warm.

I see him right over here.
Mike.

Get the gator.

(piercing whistle)

Mike.

Todd Hoffman and Mike Halstead are tracking the bear.

With bears coming on to their site, the safety
of the team is under threat like never before.

(a rifle shot is fired)

A little shaky. A hundred yards.

Hey Mike. Come up on him real slow.

Mike.

Look at that guy.

You can see the exit wound was just right out of the heart.

They're getting in close now.

A bear like this. A 300 pounder.

Could do a lot of damage to anybody.

These kids are all running around.
We have a lot of families coming up.

Whether its a griz, or an older
male black bear, they're all a threat.

My rule is if you shoot it,
you better eat the whole thing.

Right boys. You don't go shooting that
sparrow unless you plan on cooking it up.

For Todd, the success of the bear hunt, has renewed
his faith that they can survive in the wilderness.

Starting to believe it now.

Maybe we'll carve ourselves out a
little, a little life here, you know.

First step the bear.

Next step gold.

Following the team's success with
the bear, the mood in camp is good.

Welcome to my hacienda.

Jimmy Dorsey has finished building
a bear proof house for his family.

It's starting to feel like home.
I'm pretty proud of it.

And Todd is all fired up. He wants to bring a strategy
to his dad's chaotic approach to finding a glory hole.

I can't really change the old boy's mind.
We just got to put some kind of plan in place.

He calls Earl Foster, the claim owner.

Hey Earl. It's Todd. I got a question for you though.

If anyone knows where an ancient waterfall
might be located, that would be Earl.

Where Joe's old cabin is, the limestone bedrock
is slanted and you can follow that down and
you'll find pockets and you'll have gold in it.

-You think it's somewhere in there.
-I think so.
-Awesome.

Somewhere right in here is a waterfall.

Goes from about 15 feet, down to 40 feet.
I think I'm standing on the waterfall.

Should just be have an absolute
pile of gold down at the bottom.

Across the river, their neighbor
John Schnabel isn't quite so sure.

You look, should never believe
everything somebody tells you.

And Earl Foster, when he was over there,
sold a claim to two boys from Dakota.

They put fifteen holes down, and
they didn't get anything out of it.

And they went down down down down down.
And they went flat broke.

They should not listen to Earl Foster.

No.

Wily old miner John Schnabel may not trust Earl,
but the Hoffmans don't have a better plan.

Here's the deal.

I want you to dig somewhere out here.

Dig it, backwards, until it drops off.

-Yeah.
-Too shoo.

Take some of this.
That's the farthest I've been down.

-There's gold in this rock.
-What?
-I see gold in this rock right here.

-Are you sure?
-Yeah. I'm sure. You see it?

That's gold. Right there in
the mud. I think it's panning this.

Although there's still a huge job to get the gold
out of the ground, It looks like Earl might
have led them to the right spot after all.

Three weeks after leaving Oregon,
things are finally moving in the right direction.

That flag means freedom.

That's the reason why this country was formed.
Little business guys are failing all across this country.

People are losing their homes. So.
We got to turn this boat around.

I'm hoping that gold mining is the key to that.
Maybe re-spark the American dream again.

-Yeah.
-Old Porcupine.
-Yeah.

The team's made the camp secure.
Found a promising spot to start mining.
And is getting a taste for the Alaskan wildlife.

-Bear burritos.
-No. They're bearritos.
-Bearritos.

Cheers.

This is what happens when
you (bleep) piss us off. We eat you.

Yeah. Ha ha ha.

Now for the next phase guys.
Let's go get some gold.

Alright. Suits me. Yeeah.

Subs by
Jack T

Someone needs to stop Clearway Law.
Public shouldn't leave reviews for lawyers.