Come mid-march, I start thinking about coming home.
This is home.
I spend the most of my year up here.
I don't have gold fever, but I have mining fever,
because I absolutely love what I do.
Hi, my name's doumitt, and I'm a mineaholic.
On this old rush...
This thing weighs a ton, must be full of gold,
Chris doumitt reveals his unlikely journey...
Who would not want to go to Alaska?
From carpenter
I knew nothing about gold mining
to gold cleaning guru.
There's some great gold in here. Thanks, Chris.
You have now exceeded 50,000 ounces of gold.
You've cleaned a lot of gold down here.
I finally realized that's my niche in life.
And he gives new insight...
It's going to take hours
just frickin' do it, okay?
On his relationships with the klondike's
most notorious miners.
Look, you don't want to waste your time.
It's my time to waste.
End of conversation. End of conversation.
Parker's probably one of the worst people
I ever worked for in my life.
We're going to do a cleanup.
Kind of excited, really, to see what's in here.
After a week of sluicing...
Yeah, let's pluck those rubbers off and see what we got.
The schnabel crew clean out the gold.
And there's no one better to take charge...
We have gold puddle after gold puddle after gold puddle.
Than Chris doumitt.
There should be four mats in there.
Let me get these tanks drained out,
head back to the gold room,
and start processing this stuff.
It's been a wild ride.
It's been an incredible life experience.
I just wish I was 30 years younger when I started.
Now, a mining veteran of 15 years
and Parker schnabel's right hand man.
How'd I get here?
Is that what you're asking?
At the wrong place at the wrong time
is what happened.
Chris's journey to the gold fields starts in 1951.
I was born in Portland, Oregon.
I was, kind of a problem child, you might say.
I was called incorrigible.
And because of that, I ended up in a foster home
for about seven years, from 10 to 17.
Actually, that's where I learned work ethic,
because it was a produce farm, farmers.
And that's all you do is work.
After graduating from high school,
Chris finds his calling.
I was a carpenter.
I was a furniture maker.
I was a cabinet maker, cutting up wood and making stuff.
Sharon and I were married in 1971.
We spent six years getting to know each other
and then started a family, raised them in Oregon.
It was great.
At 58, I was retired.
I'd been retired for three years.
And I was fishing and golfing with my buddies.
But in 2010, Chris gets a call from an old buddy
that changes everything.
Greg remsburg asked me if I'd come to Alaska with him
and build a cabin for his family.
Greg remsburg is part of a group of guys
hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis.
You're all millionaires.
The only thing is, you've got to get it out of the ground.
You know?
Led by Todd Hoffman.
Good job, buddy.
They're seeking their fortunes,
mining for gold deep in the Alaskan wilderness.
I'm an outdoors man, right?
I love the mountains, the trees, the snow caps,
the rivers, the eagles, the fish.
Who would not want to go to Alaska?
Build a cabin.
10 days later, come home.
But we were having a hard time getting materials.
And I can't sit still.
So I'd help out where I could with the Hoffmans
and the mining process.
Hey, welcome to the team.
Thanks.
I appreciate it. This is going to be a riot.
Turn it on...
You know, these guys are investing everything they have.
But I think they're pursuing the great American dream
that we've lost sight of.
And to be involved in that, what a thrill.
Todd asked me if I could run a loader.
I said, sure.
I went and I found Greg remsburg.
I said, "Greg, what's a loader?"
I didn't know anything about mining.
But I quickly learned
that they didn't know that much either.
It was the blind leading the blind.
I wouldn't get near it, Chris.
Just let it go, kind of.
Don't let that baby come down on you.
We're going to take this to a tray we have up here
with soapy water in it to help release all the gold.
I think with what this thing holds,
it could take you for a ride, you know?
Chris pitches in wherever he can.
This thing weighs a ton. It must be full of gold.
But Todd's inexperienced crew
struggle to bring in the gold.
Two-point-seven ounces.
And after three months, the cracks begin to show.
I'm coming apart up here.
I've been here for three months, man,
and ain't money.
You and I, you want to do it?
We'll do it.
And then you'll learn to shut your mouth.
Being with the Hoffmans was a challenging time.
Come on, dude. Don't get... get off!
Back up. Just back off a little bit.
There was a lack of proper leadership.
You take it out, put it back in.
- And go. - Go put it in yourself.
You took it out.
Todd and I really, I don't...
We get along real well.
I don't think we work well together.
It's going to take hours.
Just frickin' do it, okay?
Todd was one of the guys who goes, "we need to open a cut."
"You guys go take care of it," and walk away.
It's hard to follow someone
when they're going the wrong direction.
Where in the hell is everybody?
Well, I don't know. It's just me, you, and thurber here.
It was just... I didn't want to say this...
A clash on how things should be done
and why isn't everybody working?
Why isn't everybody pulling the same weight?
The way I was raised,
you do your work and you go play later.
And you're our main man.
You're our go-to guy.
And you weren't there to go to.
And I think that was a frustrating part.
I'm tired of excuses.
And that's it in a nutshell.
Super brief summary, the first season was disastrous.
I was not part of the original six.
I wasn't one of the friends.
I wasn't part of the clique.
I had a different work ethic.
But I really wanted to see the Hoffmans be successful.
That's why I stuck out that year.
When you take that last little swish
and a layer of black sand,
it floats off, and it leaves that gold in the pan.
Good lord.
That's a rush. It really is.
Yeah!
Chris and the Hoffman crew gather
for the final gold way of their first season.
There's 14.64 ounces here.
Worth $20,000.
- Let's do it again! - Whoo!
That is what motivated us all to come back the next year.
In 2011,
the Hoffman's make the bold move to leave Alaska.
The second year was a huge step.
We came to the Yukon territory.
We came up to Dawson city, where...
That's where the big boys played.
This is it, guys.
This is our claim right here.
For their second season,
Todd enlists expert dirt mover, dozer Dave turin.
I need you to come with me.
Dave was more of a hands-on kind of leader.
You say, okay, you guys, we need to open up this cut.
And then you jump on an excavator, you jump on a loader,
- I'll jump on a dozer. - We go do it.
There's gold under this ground.
We just got to dig it up.
The second season was much more encouraging than the first.
Ninety three and a half ounces.
Worth $150,000.
Seven times more gold than their rookie season.
Now we're miners.
In 2012, Todd doubles down for his third season
and goes all in on two separate claims.
So here's the deal,
we're going to have to split up.
Todd will run his old quartz creek claim,
and Dave will run the new claim at Indian river.
Todd had picked up another wash plant.
He wanted to run two plants, two crews.
He gave us a choice.
We could either work with him or work with Dave.
What do you guys think?
Chris.
I'm up for Indian river.
Yeah, that wasn't really much of a choice.
That was more of a given.
We got nine claims.
It's virgin ground.
Dave and I have a closer work ethic than Todd and I.
So I'm going to pick the screen, swing it over,
and then I got to walk it in because we don't have a crane.
We had the go-getters,
the guys that just wanted rip and tear
and dig and sluice.
We had big red.
Costing $250,000, the 180-yard-per-hour shaker plant
has the potential to super size their operation,
but only if Chris can learn how to run it.
Big red was in pieces.
There you go.
And I'd never seen a screen deck.
Hey, let's get our Springs on.
I had no idea what it was supposed to look like
or how it even operated.
And I helped Dave put the thing together.
Good. You got it.
All right.
Looks like a wash plant, doesn't it?
Get the plant running.
I learned to run big red and make it operate
with the problems it had.
I figured out how to avoid these problems
or to work around them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Twenty nine!
There it is! We're over 30.
Whoo! Yeah!
Nice job!
- We got 81 ounces. - Yeah.
We've got a grand total of 803 right now.
Yes. 803.
Yeah.
Man, that's cool.
Worth $1.2 million.
Around that campfire, what was going through my head
is, "okay, I can go home now."
Now we can honestly say we're full-fledged,
I can make a living at this, gold miners.
I wanted to see them become successful miners
because that would mean that I was a successful miner also.
And I thought, you know, now's a good time
to go back to fishing and golfing with my buddies.
At the end of the season,
Chris joins the rest of the crew
for a TV special.
We did he dirt life show.
And that's when I announced...
Well, this year I retired.
You know, I threw in with these guys,
helped them become successful gold miners.
Look in front of you, you know?
So it's time to step aside and let a younger guy
get in that could use a job.
- Well, we're sad to see you go, Chris. - Thank you.
- Thank you for everything. - Thank you, Chris.
Parker popped up, "hey."
- If I might interrupt, do you mind? - No.
I have no idea what you're going to say.
Right now I'm crewing up to go up to the Yukon.
- So... - Well, yeah.
I mean, I need some veterans.
I need some klondike veterans.
So that offer extends to all you guys.
It was kind of funny because he was quite a character.
Seventeen, cocky.
But at the same time, it's kind of cool.
All right, that's enough out of you.
Coming up... Ain't no vacation.
You know that.
Parker was very aggressive.
Parker!
Get out of my way.
Parker was probably one of the worst people
I ever worked for in my life.
Got it.
We have a tank with a concentrate from the sluice box.
It's in the gold room now.
Veteran miner Chris doumitt is doing what he does best.
I'm just going to hose it down into here,
now we can honestly say we're full-fledged,
recovering gold from monster wash plant, big red.
This drum has a screen in it.
Materials dropping down to the screen
in a centrifugal bowl.
The bowl has ridges in it.
And as it's spinning, the gold is being cast up
into those ridges and being captured.
All the impurities are getting washed over the top.
What doesn't make it through the screen,
the pickers, the nuggets,
they'll come down into another sluice box down here.
To date, he's cleaned more than 60,000 ounces of gold.
This is awesome.
But in 2013, Chris thought he was done mining.
After three years with the Hoffmans,
it's time to retire again.
And he swapped shoveling dirt for working on his swing.
I was getting kind of bored,
starting to get underfoot with my wife.
And early spring, Parker calls.
They're having a problem with the new wash plant,
big red.
I was wondering if there's any way
I can convince you to come up.
I mean, you'd really be saving my ass.
Big red and I had a relationship, let's put it that way.
We spent a lot of time together.
After buying big red from the Hoffmans,
Parker knows Chris is the best person to run it.
But can he tempt him out of retirement for a second time?
I always did like Parker,
even though he was this little ornery kid,
maybe reminded me of me too much.
I first met Parker, actually,
season one for our first year.
Get some neighbors off.
And I remember it like it was yesterday,
he'd come riding up on this little bitty motorcycle,
he's only 15, just cocky, arrogant little kid.
He was selling firewood to the Hoffmans,
because we didn't have a camp generator.
No.
I charged him double what I usually do.
He left quite an impression.
That's gold.
I mean, it's just gold fever.
When you think about it, a couple hundred dollars
worth of gold isn't much
compared to everything they've spent here.
And I remember I was still on the phone, and I said,
"Sharon, Parker wants to know..."
And she was gone.
And a couple minutes later, she had my bags.
She knew I was going stir crazy.
I wanted to come back north.
I just wasn't willing to admit it,
only this time I knew it was going to be for more than 10 days.
Ain't no vacation.
You know that.
At his new claim on scribner creek,
17-year-old mine boss Parker is struggling to process
enough pay through big red.
You just have to stay on top of it.
You get it running too fast, things just jam up too quick.
Between Parker and the Hoffmans is day and night.
The Hoffmans ran very few hours a day.
Parker was very aggressive.
Just go, go, go, go, go.
Crank her up.
We've been doing about 100 yards an hour.
And I just turned the feeder up, so it'll be at about 180.
I think starting off 100% right off the bat could be disastrous.
But he's got the control, so we'll see what happens.
The plant's hardly getting pushed at all.
I think it's moving awful fast.
Parker!
What the
Parker pushed big red beyond its limits.
Get out of my way.
That plant.
I had a better understanding of the wash plant than he did.
So he and I have this discussion.
With this material, you can't push it.
If you want to get gold, you just go steady.
Give me the loader and the wash plant.
What other choice you got?
Sounds like a plan.
He was willing to do that.
I know reluctantly, because he wanted
to just push dirt as hard as he could through the thing.
Chris makes the call to slow the feed rate by 20%.
Parker, he's been around mine sites his whole life,
but he'd only been around big red a couple of weeks.
I've been around that thing since it was born.
Parker meets with landlord Tony beets
to find out if Chris's call was the right one.
Whoa. Awesome.
Six.
Geez.
Worth nearly $200,000.
Well, I think the thing that's helped us the most
is Chris doumitt showed up,
and he's been running the plant pretty steady.
It was important to me to have success
running big red my way.
Good job, Chris. Well done!
It helped a lot with gaining Parker's trust.
I think he started giving me a little bit more leeway
than other people.
Or either that or he was afraid of me.
That could be too.
Chris wins Parker's respect,
but the rest of the crew are feeling his wrath.
When we start getting treated like robots,
don't expect much more than a machine would give you.
This is a mess.
The first couple of years with Parker were difficult.
Parker, this schedule is not going to work.
I don't think he understood
the responsibilities of a boss.
That's what hours we're working, you know?
So if you can't handle it,
then maybe this isn't the place for you.
You're not considering your crew.
And no, I'm not the only one that feels this way.
If you're not happy, then you can leave.
The door is always open.
- End of conversation. - You have a
end of conversation. Don't talk.
That's why people don't approach you.
Okay, just leave.
He was probably one of the worst people
I ever worked for in my life.
Look, you don't want to waste your time.
It's my time to waste.
I'm just looking out for you.
Yeah, it is your time.
I am looking out for myself, Rick.
He'd be gone for two or three days,
and be come back yelling and screaming
because things weren't done the way he thought
they should have been done.
- Two days? - Well, I know. You weren't around.
I had to make the calls.
I had to make something happen.
Well, I mean, that's just... That's not good enough.
How do I stay out of the firing line?
If it had been done right, this wouldn't happen.
And that's not on you.
- I'm not saying that's on you, Mitch. - I know.
Like I said, I'd like to just
that's not on you, but some of it is.
I understand Parker and his personality,
and what sets him off, and why it sets him off.
Still to come...
We are not a crew here.
We are a family here.
Chris is pushed to his limits by Parker.
Look at the position you're putting me in.
What am I supposed to do?
The only result is
that things were going fine when you were gone.
So leave.
Had Rick walked that day, I would have walked with him.
This is violent.
15-year mining veteran Chris doumitt
brings in the rod mill to recover the hardest to catch gold.
We'll run this open so you can see the action.
The gold rich concentrates pass through the mill.
You're going to crush, you're going to pulverize,
you're going to liquefy everything
except gold, lead, and steel.
Once it's all crushed out, look what you have.
Life is like a sluice ball cleanup.
You never know what you're going to get.
When I left the Hoffman's and went to Parker,
I kind of went from the frying pan to the fire.
Chris feels the heat more than ever
in his second and third seasons with Parker.
We're not done mining.
We need to keep working.
We need to stay and find some more gold.
Is there an issue with that? So... This is
I understand you wanted to get as much gold as you could get.
I understand that.
But everybody's wore out.
We've wiped your ass for 2,000 ounces all season.
Now we're empty.
It's been Parker, you're gone.
I don't want you guys here if you don't want to be here.
He fired a lot of good people
for not of good reason.
When you go through a lot of people,
you pick up a reputation.
And when you pick up that reputation,
you don't get good people.
I guess we got a leak.
We all remember Derek.
Yeah.
In 2015, short on crew,
Parker brings in mechanic Derek antoniuk.
Every weld Carl welded is crap.
He kind of thought he was a rooster.
And he came in just pushing and bossing people around.
- Mitch. - Yo.
From now on, you listen to me.
Everything all right?
Yeah.
Did you tell Rick you wanted to strangle Derek?
He told me to go make him a pizza.
I didn't hear an ask on that.
"Doumitt, go make me a pizza."
You know, I went and made his pizza.
And I put it at his feet.
I said, "do that to me again, I'll".
I don't think so.
In the mining world that we're in,
you live with people 24/7 for months.
You have to get along.
Whether you like a person or not,
you have to get along.
Because one person that's a troublemaker
can infect a whole camp.
And now you have real problems.
Parker's longtime foreman, Rick ness,
has been away from the site for a few days.
He returns to discover all hell has broken loose.
Pretty clear what's going on here.
There's one guy messing everything up,
and the one other guy that matters
doesn't seem to see it. Parker.
Just tell him to stay the away from me.
- Wow, Rick. - I'm serious.
That's not a position that I like to hear from you.
You
all he's done is try to get the plant up and going,
and we're running,
and talking about everybody that's been here,
making this is what it is.
And... And that's bull.
Don't put me in this position.
What position?
Pitting everybody against each other.
I'm not pitting anybody against anybody.
Parker was pointing his finger at the wrong person.
And Rick may have handled it wrong,
but Parker should've got more information before he blew up.
I just don't like the guy.
Yeah. I don't think it's my job to like everybody, is it?
You don't get to just not like somebody.
That is right. You have to at least give people a chance.
That is a job requirement, yes.
You are making an enemy out of me.
That's not what I intended.
That is... that is the result.
So what do I do?
What... look at the position you're putting me in.
What am I supposed to do?
- I... - the only result is that
things were going fine when you were gone.
So leave.
You got to remember, Parker comes from a very small town
in Alaska, right?
So he didn't have a lot of exposure
to a lot of different kinds of people,
and so his people skills were were pretty limited.
And it was just a matter of helping him develop those skills
and to recognize the solution isn't always to fire someone.
Rick could have brought life back into this place.
- Instead, he's... - and he will.
He... he's not right now.
- Should I fire him? - No!
How many times do I want to tell you no?
Don't do that to Rick,
because these people have been with you a long time.
A long time.
And I don't know if you've noticed,
but we are not a crew here.
We are a family here.
- We are. - And if something, someone,
is tearing up that family,
some kid, new
he's only been here, what, a couple weeks?
Who would you get rid of?
Had Rick got fired that day,
I would have walked with him.
That was the attitude I had.
But then I thought, with Parker, you know,
you don't shoot a good horse just because he's lame.
There's good in there.
Just stifle the bad, draw out the good,
fine-tune it,
and you're gonna have yourself a champion.
Rick needs a second chance.
He doesn't have my back.
Well, he's watched your back for all these years,
and then you jump on him.
I think Parker and I have always been able to talk.
We've always been able to work it out.
I said, "why on earth would you take this position?"
He says, "I'm trying to keep a crew together."
- Yeah. - He's the reason it's getting torn apart.
Well, all right.
It's easy to see where the conflict is
and smooth it out.
Your attitude is outrageous.
I know I came in kind of like a.
That was stupid on my part.
You told me at the beginning of the season,
"you don't know how much your mood affects the operation."
And the same goes for you now, right?
I really want to move forward.
You've always had my back.
So are we good for a fresh start?
All right.
If I got to shake a guy's hand,
- that's what I got to do. - Whatever.
Still don't mean I gotta like the guy.
Sorry I called you an imp.
Come on, handshake.
All right.
And one of the best things I can do
is give Parker a real good listening to.
And sometimes that's all it takes.
I'm glad I helped save Rick.
At the end of the season,
Parker brings his reunified crew together.
It's been a long one,
and you guys have all stuck it out,
and I appreciate that.
It's ended up really good.
And a lot of that, I have you to thank for, Rick.
You've been one hell of a leader.
- Yup. Yeah, Rick. - I appreciate it, buddy.
I want to thank you for giving me a shot.
You know, I appreciate
Parker was man enough to thank him.
And compliment him for his leadership skills.
That tells me there's good in the boy.
You know?
There's a tremendous amount of potential in Parker
when you see someone do something like that.
So that takes us to 3,362.
Shooter!
In 2015,
Parker mines $3,698,000,
the biggest take of his gold mining career.
Parker, you don't know how pleased
and proud I am of you.
You know, his grandpa, John,
he's the one who got the kid started.
You know, they were close.
They were very, very close.
That was the last time I saw John schnabel.
That spring, John schnabel passed away.
I wasn't quite sure how Parker was gonna handle it.
And I was kind of wondering
how that might affect his mining season.
Now that his grandfather is gone,
does he have any goals?
You know, is it
I think a lot of those goals were set for his grandfather.
You know, "I'm going to do this for my granddad.
I'm going do this for my grandpa."
Now, with grandpa gone,
does he still have these goals?
Some gold, it just doesn't want to get cleaned.
This is designed to recover superfine gold.
For miner Chris doumitt,
cleaning gold is a mix of science and art.
The part I love the most about the gold room
is seeing just how clean I can get the gold,
and if I can get every little flake.
I want it all.
Trial, error, and fine-tuning.
Constantly changing the table, changing the speed,
changing the water flow,
add a little, take a little away,
it all helps direct that gold to the path it should go.
Chris knows better than anyone
the path to success doesn't always run smooth.
It's always hard leaving home for six months.
But the fourth season with Parker
is the toughest.
In 2016, Chris is tested more than ever.
How are you doing, kid?
- My god. - I'm good.
My wife, Sharon, was dealing with cancer.
This is a real cook when you know you're cooking gold.
At the same time,
I was dealing with some real bad back issues.
Damn.
And so I had to have back surgery.
So I can't lift anything.
Which, in mining, means you can't do anything.
That thing sounds like me when I walk now.
I think this sounds a little better.
Hurry up, Tyson.
I'm tired of standing here watching you work hard.
Do you want me to grab you a chair?
One with wheels.
Once I realized I couldn't run the plant,
I felt like I wasn't contributing.
I had no worth.
I mean, I hate to say it,
but I think it might be turning
into a young man's game around here.
The back surgery, it got me out of equipment,
but it got me into the gold room.
Is your back all right doing that?
Yeah. Yeah. I'm going slow.
All right.
It's very...
Secluded here.
You don't want a lot of traffic
going through your gold room.
I felt left out for a while,
because I wasn't out in the cut with everybody else.
We're gonna jig it.
We're gonna clean the jig real well.
We'll table it... we'll clean it.
Yeah, I don't feel like I'm part of the whole crew.
I'm an outcast. I'm worthless.
You know, I'm not bringing anything to the table.
I have no worth.
I thought, well, you know,
you got to get good at this.
We got a big red coming in.
70
100
119.3.
Ooh, not bad, man.
Let's see what old sluicifer did.
Now I have worth and value.
Even though I'm not out with everybody else,
I'm just as much part of the crew as anyone.
How's it looking, doumitt?
You're looking at about $320,000.
Yeah.
I finally realized that's my niche in life.
Bingo.
That's where I belong.
Gold isn't the only thing of value
to come out of Chris' new role.
Hi, Chris.
Hey there, youngster.
What's going on this week,
so I think the first few years I was in the gold room,
park and I spent a lot of time together, quiet time,
and we'd talk about all kinds of stuff.
It's one-on-one.
There's no interruptions.
I have to live in a different world
of... of keeping this business afloat.
So much money has gone out
and hardly anything has come in, right?
That's not good.
I definitely wasn't looking for that position,
but I think I ended up being in this position of a...
A counselor.
Mentor.
Sometimes it's pretty tough to do this.
It's pretty tough to keep going.
In 2018, without his grandpa, John,
Parker turns to Chris.
Yeah, I'm just feeling like a piece of.
I would... I wouldn't say lonely and depressed,
but, really, I'm just feeling sorry for myself.
- Yeah. - Which is... which is...
Which is pretty stupid.
But...
You know, it just takes me a...
Longer and longer every day
to convince myself that this is all worth it.
Well, you can either sit up here
and smother yourself in self-pity,
or you can get out there and be a leader again.
Everything I touch turns to.
Honestly, that's how I feel.
No. How can you say that?
We're on schedule for our goal,
even though we started a month late.
That's all you, Parker.
And now is the time where you can't stop.
This is the final push of the season.
- I get that. - Right?
- Okay. - I get that.
Parker's just looking for a little bit of encouragement
and a bit of confidence.
I mean, the team can't score a touchdown
without a quarterback.
You're the quarterback.
You're not the boss anymore.
You're a leader.
You have to get out in the cuts
and show people that you're out there,
you're in it.
It's the encouragement.
You can do it.
Yeah?
Yeah.
Okay, buddy. I gotta go.
You take care, right?
Jump in there, man.
- Yeah, we'll be all right. - We'll make it. You'll be all right.
We'll catch you later, youngster.
Thanks, Chris.
You know, Chris is right.
I'm definitely going to have to step up.
And we can get through the season.
Mitch, fire it up.
Parker, send us some material.
Parker is a smart kid.
He just needed a friend.
Coming up... There was never a doubt in my mind
about buying dominion.
Chris opens up on Parker's $15 million gamble.
That's a lot of money.
And we haven't gotten to the good stuff yet.
Yeah, see, now that it's dry,
see how it moves so easily?
We'll, demag it,
and we should have some good clean gold.
There's a magnet in here.
You push it down,
and it'll compress against that plastic plate...
And pick up any magnetics that were left.
To date,
Chris has cleaned nearly 60,000 oz of gold for Parker.
Put in perspective,
that weighs about the same as a small car.
Just about all fit in one wheelbarrow.
And you're looking at about $118 million.
And we cleaned 'er one flake at a time.
7,427.25 oz.
Over 11 seasons, Parker, with Chris by his side,
has gone from a young minor to a klondike powerhouse
7,504.9 oz.
Smashing previous record-breaking gold hauls
399.65.
Time and time again.
This year, we have 8,309.75 oz.
I never in 1,000 years
thought it would turn out like this.
And in 2022...
- All right, you guys. - What do you got, Chris?
They hit an incredible milestone.
With this week's gold weigh,
collectively, in your career,
you have now exceeded 50,000 oz of gold.
Today, worth $115 million.
- Fifty... fifty thousand. Well... - 50,000 oz of gold, right.
And you guys have been a big part of that.
Where the did it all go?
D11! D11!
What in the?
Parker, if you want to open that.
Ready? Let her buck, man!
Whoo!
Did you notice we have one extra glass?
Honestly, I think one should be for your grandpa.
He's the one who got you started,
and I think we should pour one out for grandpa John.
That's a good call.
- Yeah. - Right.
To grandpa John!
- Whoo! - Whoo!
Thanks, Chris.
My pleasure, young man.
You've cleaned a lot
you've cleaned a lot of gold down here.
Yeah, no kidding.
Here's to 50,000, you guys.
- 50,000 more. - And to the next 50.
It.
In 2023...
Thank you.
Congratulations.
Parker drops $15 million
on the 7,500-acre dominion creek claim,
catapulting him to the top of the Yukon gold miners.
We bought the place.
- Whoa! - Whoa!
- There he is. - Look at you.
- Our own place. - All the headaches.
- We got everything. - Yeah, all the bills?
- All the good and the bad. - Yeah.
If it's a success, we did it.
If there's something wrong, you did something wrong.
I think it was a great investment.
Parker was really smart
and he really checked things out.
120, 150, 160...
We spent a lot of money drilling holes.
220, 230... But it told us an awful lot.
340...
And from what I understand,
we haven't gotten to the good stuff yet.
Well, you threw a 5,000 oz goal at us.
You nailed that.
You threw a 7,000 oz goal.
Our season total... Is 7,381.1 for the season.
In their first season at dominion,
Chris cleans up almost $15 million worth of gold,
nearly covering the cost of Parker's new claim.
You know, there was never a doubt in my mind
about buying dominion.
The best is yet to come.
I really want to thank you all.
And, I mean it from the bottom of my heart.
You know, through the years, it's just...
It's been a joy and a pleasure just to watch Parker mature
and transform into the person he is.
In his early years, there was no recognition.
There was no reward.
There was no pat on the back.
"You're here to work for me.
You're here to make me money."
Period.
He realizes the value in people now.
Good people are good to have around.
You know, I think Parker is probably
one of the best people I've ever worked for...
Now.
I've got a gift in mind for Parker.
Hopefully this is gonna work.
Chris, he's been a really good influence on me
in terms of just...
Life,
and dealing with people and dealing with problems.
I give him a lot of credit for where we are now.
Over the last three or four years,
I think I probably got away from the mentoring...
Part of things, and just a trusted friend.
- Hi. What you doing? - Hey, Parker.
It's kind of odd for a 72-year-old man
and a 30-year-old boy to become friends.
But it is what it is.
- Nice day. - It's beautiful out.
You need the opener?
No, I got it.
There's been so many butterflies around.
It's an omen.
- It's a sign. - Is it a good sign?
Yeah. Look at the color of their wings.
They're kind of goldy.
Right?
Through our lives,
we have a lot of acquaintances,
few friends.
When you really look at the true definition of a friend,
someone who's willing to lay their life down for you.
That's a friend.
Everyone else is an acquaintance.
So, anyway, I made you that.
Nice.
That is cool.
Caesar Parker schnabelus.
I hope you get a kick out of it.
I know how you like old Roman coins.
That is so cool.
I'm glad you like it.
- Thank you, Chris. - You bet.
I hope it brightens your day.
It does.
It just kind of a... A little bit of a thank you
for giving me an opportunity to be down here
and work on these gold rushes.
- Chris. - Man, I've loved it.
It's been such a joy.
It's been a hell of a ride, that's for sure.
Who'd have thought?
Who would have thought?
I came up north for ten days
15 years ago
just to build a cabin.
Yeah.
What a thrill.
And to be involved in the life of a kid...
That get 38 oz his first year
to becoming one of the largest gold producers of the Yukon now.
Couldn't ask for a better boss either, Parker.
And I mean that.
Chris. I appreciate that.
- Thanks for the coin, man. - You bet ya, buddy.
Thank you for everything, man.
Chris, thank you for everything.
I'm as proud of him as any of my kids.
It's amazing.
He's just... he's done such a wonderful job.
Life is like a handful of dirt.
Somewhere in there, you're gonna find some gold.
You just gotta Cherish it when you find it.