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00:00He's probably awake.
00:29But he's probably not super enthusiastic to see us this early, but he's probably awake.
00:35All we can do is ring the doorbell and see what happens.
00:39Yeah.
00:40Yeah.
00:41Okay.
00:42Here we go.
00:43Morning.
00:44Morning.
00:45I just wanted to try the doorbell.
00:46Good morning.
00:47Come on in.
00:48Thanks very much.
00:49After you.
00:50On this Gold Rush, Parker Schnabel tests out a next-level piece of new equipment.
01:08I just spent $540,000.
01:11Decides whether to make a game-changing business deal.
01:15500 ounces of gold, that's a million dollars.
01:19And hunts for new gold-rich land.
01:23Really we're looking for old shafts or piles of tailings, because there was no machinery
01:27mining up here.
01:28Be ready.
01:47It's 9 a.m.
01:50Parker's crew has been working for two hours.
01:54But he is just waking up.
01:57I'm not really a morning person.
02:00I take after my mom.
02:03She's a night owl, as am I.
02:07Usually I just, you know, peruse the equipment auctions for a little bit in the morning.
02:16Anything good on the auction?
02:18No.
02:21I putter a little bit in the morning, and look at equipment, and look at gold prices.
02:29Any gold price movement is directly onto our bottom line.
02:33Try to read into the crystal ball what's going to happen.
02:38I'm not very good at it, so, you know.
02:44The project, the size, it's like every $100 swing in the gold price is millions of dollars.
02:53I am horrifically bad at selling gold at good prices.
03:00I sold like 1,000 ounces the day Hamas attacked Israel.
03:10The morning before anybody knew what had happened.
03:17And gold prices went up a lot the next, like, 10 days.
03:24In 2024, gold prices hit an all-time high at over $2,500 an ounce.
03:33We'll probably go down to the office, have a coffee.
03:36Let's do it.
03:43Parker's Dominion crew is spread out over 7,500 acres, stretching six miles long.
03:50It can take half an hour to travel from one end of the claim to the other.
04:03My day is probably going to be fairly busy, but I never really start the day running.
04:12I'm going to go to the office first, drink some coffee.
04:16What else do we have?
04:17A fun new piece of equipment showing up today.
04:20I have a business meeting lined up, and I usually do the rounds of the mine site at
04:26some point, see what's going on.
04:32And Liam's around, so I'll probably go look at a piece of ground that I was thinking about
04:37drilling.
04:38I do have some exploration on with him.
04:44That would be good.
04:56Coffee?
04:57We have a big coffee budget.
05:00Which one is going to be the best?
05:02This is a, like, maple pecan.
05:07Good morning.
05:12So we go from sitting on a couch to sitting at a desk.
05:18And I'm a very fidgety person, so deck of cards is my fidgety tool of choice.
05:31Can you show us a trick?
05:32I don't have any tricks.
05:38I think one of the most difficult things that I find is, like, running a good business with
05:46the film crews on site.
05:49You know, it's a very weird dynamic, and nobody's used to that kind of atmosphere at
06:02a place they work, right?
06:04Since Gold Rush began in 2010, over 200 different camera crew have filmed Parker's every move.
06:14Oh, Parker.
06:15Would you like some coffee?
06:17Eggy toast?
06:18There's a camera in my face every day.
06:22Capturing the highs.
06:23Oh, yeah.
06:24Nothing wrong with a 400-ounce wheat.
06:27And lows.
06:28Parker!
06:29Get out of my f***ing way.
06:31In over 60,000 hours of footage.
06:36For the most part, we're pretty full access, but there still is things where it's like,
06:41okay, this is, like, a very big issue on the mine site.
06:45The risk of messing up and your boss getting mad at you is one thing.
06:51The risk of messing up and your boss getting mad at you, and it all getting broadcast worldwide
06:56on TV, is a super weird thing that is arguably not very healthy.
07:08Speaking of things that need to happen off camera, I need you guys to leave while I take
07:13this.
07:14All right.
07:15It's the bank.
07:21Next to Parker's office.
07:22Nona, hi.
07:23Mine manager, Nona Loveless, drives Parker's operation.
07:29Parker kicked us out, so we thought we'd come and check in with you.
07:33I am, well, busy trying to move buildings and keep people going, and I've got to go
07:41into town and do some books.
07:43It's a typical day.
07:46My days are never two of the same.
07:49A veteran Klondike miner, Nona joined Parker's crew six years ago in 2018.
07:55Yeah, the last couple of years have been really crazy with expansion.
08:01It's been good, but it's also a lot of work and a lot of organizing and, yeah, trying
08:07to keep the equipment.
08:09We're getting more equipment.
08:11We're getting more ground.
08:13We're getting more people.
08:15We need more housing.
08:16It just keeps going and going and going.
08:22Nona helps Parker run one of the biggest mine sites in the Klondike, managing over 40 crew
08:29and a fleet of big iron.
08:36There's a board behind you there that has not even all of our equipment now.
08:42We're going to be having three of these in the near future because we are growing exponentially,
08:49very fast, and it just tells the service date, what needs to be serviced, the hours on the
08:55machine.
08:56Mechanics are really good at keeping it filled in.
09:00We're just growing, growing, growing, growing.
09:03The theme is growing around here.
09:05Are they bothering you?
09:06Well, no, I'm trying to get some work done, but no, that's not what they're doing at all.
09:11We were just in there talking about the company and how far we've come, and thinking about
09:18that stuff, it brings a lot of memories back.
09:22It does, for sure.
09:24It's just crazy how we've grown.
09:27Every time I think about that stuff, it makes me incredibly thankful that you came here
09:31and have stayed here.
09:32Honestly.
09:33Well, I love being here.
09:34It's been good.
09:35It's been a good journey.
09:36Okay.
09:37I'm going to go.
09:38Bye.
09:43So now we're just going to head over to the stripping crew.
09:46For the most part, they're just out dealing with things that nobody else has time to deal
09:51with, and see what happens.
10:05So this is the stripping crew.
10:14They pretty much operate totally autonomously from the rest of the mine site, three or four
10:20of them usually, but it's my favorite part of the whole operation, maybe other than the
10:24gold room.
10:25So I usually like to check in with them fairly regularly.
10:30Parker's crew is gunning for a record $25 million season.
10:35How's it going?
10:36Good.
10:37How are you?
10:38Good.
10:39This weather's not doing us any favors, is it?
10:41Definitely not.
10:42After today, pretty much the whole cut, other than the center bit up there, will be on frost.
10:48Wash plant boss Tyson Lee has worked with Parker for nine years.
10:52Yeah, let's do her.
10:54All right.
10:55Thanks, man.
10:56You guys are good, Tyson?
10:57Yeah.
10:58Okay.
11:00You know, what you see of Parker, that's the real him, that's the real deal.
11:06You know, I definitely see Parker as a friend, but there's that, you know, level of respect
11:12that's there, too, because he is my boss, and, you know, he does have hard decisions
11:16to make, and, you know, I respect those hard decisions.
11:21You know, he's definitely stepped down to the seat and kind of stepped into the office
11:25a little more nowadays, which is needed, because there's a lot of bills to pay and a lot of
11:32ground to find, and, you know, he's always looking for the next best thing.
11:38I try and put myself in his shoes a lot, because, you know, we're six, seven months apart, and
11:44age-wise, you know, most guys my age, they worry about, do I have enough money to make
11:50my, you know, $400, $800 vehicle payments and my $1,000 rent at the end of the month?
11:57Parker, he's got, you know, millions of dollars of debt, and, you know, he holds it very well.
12:13Looking to diversify his business, Parker heads to a meeting.
12:17A good friend of mine, Bruce Schindler, who is a, I mean, he's kind of a jack-of-all-trades
12:27when it comes to, like, artistry and jewelry making.
12:32He does a lot of things with mammoth tusks, and now he's working with gold, and we started
12:40working together years ago on some personal stuff for me, like he made a gold ashtray
12:45for Chris Dumit, like a five-ounce gold cigar ashtray.
12:51And so that kind of set off a chain of events that have led to him taking a bunch of gold
12:57from us last year or the year before that, and just started making stuff with it.
13:05And he just showed up to give me an update about what's going on and talk about where
13:12that's at.
13:14We normally sell our gold just basically wholesale to buyers, and we get charged 1%.
13:20So if we find 5,000 ounces of gold, like, we lose 50 ounces to the buyers.
13:26So, you know, when you start to do big volumes of gold, it does start to become a pretty
13:31big expense, and basically you want to sell your product for as much as you can, right?
13:42In the gold room with Bruce, gold-cleaning expert Chris Dumit.
13:46Hey, youngster.
13:48Gentlemen.
13:49Bruce.
13:50Glad to be here again.
13:53Parker has given Bruce 100 ounces of his Dominion gold to make a sample batch of jewelry.
14:00I've made some pretty fun stuff.
14:03I'd like to show you something.
14:04Yeah, that would be great.
14:05Hold your hand out and feel this.
14:07That is so cool.
14:11It's silky, isn't it?
14:12Yeah.
14:13So, you gave me 100 ounces of gold.
14:16Those are cool.
14:17So you got earrings, rings, chains.
14:20I've made a bunch of pieces for you and your friends.
14:22I made some wedding rings for a few people, which has been kind of sweet.
14:25I made Dumit's cigar ashtray.
14:28Oh, man.
14:29Happy birthday.
14:30Oh, my gosh.
14:31For me?
14:32Thanks.
14:33It's an ashtray.
14:36Is it real gold?
14:37It's our gold.
14:39Are you kidding me?
14:40No.
14:42Holy cow.
14:43Where's your ashtray?
14:44Oh, it's at home.
14:45It's at home.
14:46Yeah.
14:47Yeah, it doesn't come back here.
14:48I never put a cigar out in it.
14:49I put the ashes in it.
14:50Dump the ashes out and clean it.
14:51Put the ashes in it.
14:52There you go.
14:53I can see that being on a baseball player.
14:54Yeah.
14:55At the World Series.
14:56How do I look?
14:57And he's up to bat.
14:58I'm not too skinny of a white boy to have gold jewelry, I think.
14:59No, that looks good on you, Parker.
15:00Yeah.
15:01And the fun thing about it is it's not just that it's worth a bunch of money, but it's
15:16unlike anything else, any other element on earth.
15:19It is so malleable.
15:21It is so creamy and high carat, and it wants to be manipulated.
15:26Pure gold, or 24-carat gold, is naturally soft.
15:32To toughen it up, jewelers often mix it with other metals to create a 9- or 18-carat alloy.
15:40But Bruce has another method to strengthen Parker's gold.
15:46Do you want to see how this stuff works a little bit?
15:50Yeah, I'd love to.
15:51So what we're going to do, we're going to do two things.
15:53One, it's a little bit square.
15:54We want to make it round.
15:55And two, we're going to make it longer.
15:56We're going to squeeze it down.
15:58So let's pull this.
16:00Is this how you make spaghetti?
16:01Wouldn't that be cool?
16:02A plate of gold spaghetti.
16:03Oh, damn, buddy.
16:04You're much too rich for my blood.
16:05So I've done this before.
16:06This is a draw plate.
16:07And the idea is you pull the gold through a hole, and then you take it to the next hole.
16:08It's a little bit smaller.
16:09And what that does is it squeezes it down.
16:10We're going to make it longer.
16:11Here, let me hold this.
16:12This should be interesting.
16:13I'm going to hold this.
16:14I'm going to hold this.
16:15I'm going to hold this.
16:16I'm going to hold this.
16:17I'm going to hold this.
16:18I'm going to hold this.
16:20I'm going to hold this.
16:21I'm going to hold this.
16:22I'm going to hold this.
16:23I'm going to hold this.
16:24I'm going to hold this.
16:25I'm going to hold this.
16:26That's it.
16:27That's it.
16:28That's it.
16:29Yeah.
16:30That worked.
16:31Holy cow.
16:32And we just compressed it 2 tenths of a millimeter.
16:33We made it a little bit longer.
16:34It's firmer than it was before.
16:36So as you're working this, because you're putting all this pressure on it, it's making
16:41it harder.
16:42It's getting harder.
16:43So I need my glasses.
16:44I need my glasses.
16:45I want to be just like Chris.
16:47Look, they even look the same.
16:49They look the same.
16:50Yeah.
16:51Oh, my.
16:52We're twins.
16:53People aren't going to be able to tell.
16:54I'll work on that.
16:55Yeah.
16:56Give me a few more years.
16:57Watch this.
16:58That's cool in itself.
16:59Isn't it?
17:06So now we have the first stage of making chain link.
17:13And so now what we've got to do is we just take a cut on top of this.
17:17They all fall apart into individual links.
17:19So now we have these jump rings.
17:22But they're all the exact same size.
17:24They're all exact same size.
17:25So someday I'm going to come back to you and say, hey, I need a machine.
17:29I can't do this by myself.
17:31So I need about $150,000 to buy a chain link machine.
17:37It actually kind of makes me want to start making stuff.
17:41Can we take 50 ounces and make stuff and sell it?
17:46I'd like, we've been making it for ourselves.
17:48Right.
17:49Yeah, we should be trying to sell it.
17:52I'll give you all the gold you can sell.
17:56That sounds amazing.
17:57Yeah.
17:58But then once I can move that 50 ounces of gold, I'm going to need another 50 ounces.
18:03So are you willing to give me, say, 100 ounces at a time in the future?
18:14I'll give you 500 if you can take it.
18:18I mean, 500 ounces, that's a million dollars worth of gold.
18:22Yeah.
18:23And you would give that to me to work?
18:24Yeah.
18:25I mean, you're not going to run off with it, are you?
18:28I don't know where I'd go.
18:31But that is a lot.
18:32And that makes me feel excited and a little anxious.
18:36500 ounces.
18:38And what that's going to mean is I got to up my marketing.
18:41I got to up my website.
18:43I'm going to need help with my books because I'm not so great on books.
18:47Going to the club, me neither.
18:48Oh, my God.
18:49Can I borrow Mona?
18:50Please?
18:51No.
18:52She's amazing.
18:53No.
18:54She has five jobs as it is.
18:55But, you know, I've got stuff to ramp up.
18:56We can scale this up.
18:58I've got to run.
18:59I'm sorry.
19:00And you're welcome here anytime.
19:02Yeah.
19:03No worries.
19:04All right.
19:05See you, Parker.
19:06You're good?
19:07Good.
19:08Are you good?
19:09Good.
19:10OK.
19:11That was awesome.
19:13This is something that I thought could possibly happen, and I'm a little stunned.
19:17In fact, I'm a little intimidated.
19:19I asked for 50 ounces.
19:20He didn't give me 500 ounces of gold.
19:23That's a million dollars.
19:28So now we're just going to head over to the wash plant yard, check out our new toy.
19:37This is the very integral part of the mine site.
19:53Right now we're going to look at my new toys.
19:56I just spent one, two, three, $540,000.
20:06I just spent $540,000.
20:12These were $180,000 apiece.
20:20New water pumps.
20:27Just this morning.
20:28Straight off the rack?
20:33This is new.
20:45Nice.
20:46Parker's new pumps will push up to 7,600 gallons of water per minute through his wash plants.
20:56So we live and die by the water pump, right?
20:59Wash plants don't run.
21:01Plants don't get dewatered.
21:05It's very bad when you start having water pump problems.
21:13I love a good water pump.
21:15Zero hours on them, and they're going to be the cat's ass.
21:22I wonder if they put a used turbo on it.
21:25Do they give us a full tank of fuel?
21:31Bone dry.
21:32Thanks, guys.
21:33Spend half a milli and, you know, they siphoned out the fuel tank.
21:40You know, don't look too closely at the things you buy.
21:42You know, just not my problem.
21:44It's okay.
21:45We're leaving.
21:47Parker's latest purchases will join a roster of 22 water pumps.
21:53But pumps are just a small part of the equipment Parker needs to keep the enormous operation
22:00on the gold.
22:02Over the years, Parker has built up an army of monster machines and a fleet of plants.
22:18Prepping Slucifer for another hard season's mining, mechanic Alec Kelly.
22:24Do you see our new pumps?
22:27I did.
22:28I turned one on and it blew a big cloud of dust in my face.
22:33They look really nice.
22:34Yeah.
22:35What is that?
22:36That's our new lawnmower.
22:37Oh, it's a magnet.
22:38Oh, yeah.
22:39Where did this come from?
22:40I figured we'd do all this metal work.
22:41Might as well have a quick way of cleaning it up.
22:42You just hang it over the garbage can and pull up on that little bar there.
22:43This way?
23:02That's pretty cool.
23:03Isn't it?
23:04I like that.
23:05Alec has come so far and it's just an absolute pleasure to work around and everything he
23:22does is like super clean and really tidy and organized and he has, you know, all his orders
23:26in place.
23:28We're pretty aggressive, like we stock a lot of parts.
23:32It's going to be more than necessary, but, you know, run time is so important, you know.
23:38If there's a 5% chance that something's going to break and cause six weeks of downtime,
23:44it's like, you know, several million dollar f***ed up.
23:57Parker checks in with foreman Mitch Blaschke.
24:00How's it going?
24:02Oh, good.
24:03I was just talking to Tyson about what's going on, having everything on frost and trying
24:07desperately to sluice.
24:10What are our options?
24:11Well, I think the way the company's always been the most profitable is when we can get
24:15ahead of the cut a bit.
24:17You're getting the mud off and getting some of the gravel, so we can get ahead of ourselves
24:21a bit.
24:22With the rate we're going right now, we're going to be fighting it out for a ways here.
24:27It's very different ground and I hope that you guys aren't too frustrated.
24:30No, not at all.
24:31Okay.
24:32That sounds good to me.
24:34I'll leave you guys to it.
24:36You know, so I've worked for Parker for 11 seasons now and yeah, definitely a lot's changed,
24:46you know, in that amount of time.
24:50You know, for somebody to come up here that was as young as Parker was when he started
24:54and turn this into one of the biggest in the Yukon here, it's very impressive.
25:00You know, one of the things Parker's always told us, if one of you guys can swat the drone
25:04out of the air with the excavator, he's like, I got a thousand bucks for you in the office.
25:09So just be aware when you're flying that drone that there's definitely a bounty on it.
25:15So one of the things that probably nobody knows about Parker, and it's something that
25:22I think a lot of the crew probably does on purpose, is he is very particular on how things
25:28are stacked in the dishwasher.
25:30If people don't stack their dishes in the dishwasher properly and they're not spaced
25:35right, and if they're too close together, he will absolutely come uncorked.
25:40So everybody's, you know, pretty good about putting their dishes away, but I think every
25:46once in a while you'll see somebody just go in there and just like throw one in sideways
25:50and you can just see the smoke coming out of his ears.
25:59I'm headed to visit a few cusps.
26:02You can't drive, so we're going to take the Sherp.
26:05And then I'm going over to Sulphur Creek with Liam.
26:09So we will go see what we can find.
26:28So I'm just on my way to visit a few cusps, but I'm going to stop by camp first.
26:40I'm just going to pop into the kitchen and grab my lunch.
26:42You don't need to come.
26:43I'm gonna.
26:44You don't need to.
26:45I know, but I'm gonna.
26:46I would rather you not.
26:53Lunch flower season.
26:55Are you the same lunch every day kind of guy?
27:01No.
27:02What do you got today?
27:06Breakfast.
27:07Pork wrap.
27:08Can I ask you to do one annoying thing for me?
27:12No.
27:13Yes.
27:14It's time to go.
27:15No, we have to do one annoying thing.
27:16Nope.
27:17I want to.
27:18I'm going.
27:19No, no, no.
27:20Look.
27:21Get in, losers.
27:22It's so complicated.
27:23Holy ****.
27:24It's just so **** difficult all the time.
27:30Over 14 years of filming, Parker and Goldrush TV producers have built up a unique working
27:38relationship.
27:42It's very weird because I've spent my whole adult life, plus some non-adult life on camera,
27:49right?
27:51It's a bit of a love-hate relationship with filming and film crew, you know?
28:00When I first started the show, it was just like this amazing, crazy, super cool, super
28:05fun, really interesting process making a TV show and having film crew on a mine site that
28:11I grew up on.
28:14Being from a tiny little town in Alaska, it was like a group of people that I would have
28:19never spent time around.
28:22People like that.
28:23Honestly, it was amazing.
28:26I was super happy, felt super lucky, and was scared to death of it ending.
28:34Now I'm scared to death of it never ending.
28:46Having bought 7,500 acres of ground at Dominion, Parker needs to explore every inch for gold.
28:54You don't need to work very hard to find a reason to use the Sherp, you know?
29:00To get him where he needs to go, Parker's hopping in a brand new toy.
29:07The Sherp, a Ukrainian-built four-wheel drive, 55-horsepower amphibious beast, should be
29:15able to explore all his ground.
29:22Come on in.
29:23All right.
29:24So this pit, this one here, it's not very big, but we took all the brush and whatnot
29:40off of it last year just to let the sun start thawing things out.
29:43It looks like it's, like, draining really well.
29:45You know, we might get six, eight feet of thaw off of it and not do any ripping.
29:52And so it'll be a really cheap cut to strip, but the timeline will be really long.
29:56It'll take years to get down to the pay, but we won't spend any money doing it.
30:01So supposedly, it's amphibious.
30:06How deep's the pond that we're looking at?
30:10This one's very deep.
30:11Like, it's probably 30 feet, with a very soft bank.
30:19Parker hasn't put the Sherp to the test on water yet.
30:24Here we go.
30:27Now I know why we're in the show.
30:34Nice.
30:35So we know it floats, but now we don't know for how long.
30:41With massive 63-inch adjustable pressure tires, the Sherp powers across the pond.
30:50It doesn't go very fast, does it?
30:54I mean, I don't see any water coming.
30:57Oh, no, I don't.
31:00I don't see any water coming in, so that's a good sign.
31:11It's too steep!
31:13So we might actually have a hard time getting out of the water.
31:17Okay.
31:18Because that bank looks really soft over there.
31:20All right, we're close to the moment of truth here.
31:23Okay, what do you give us?
31:25I'm just going to keep her pinned.
31:27We've just got to hit the beach and stay moving.
31:29Right.
31:30We've got contact!
31:33Oh, see, we're getting stuck!
31:37Keep it going, keep it going.
31:39Push her.
31:40Oh, no.
31:41We're not lifting.
31:45We might be ****ed.
31:52Do you want the good news or the bad news?
31:55Bad news.
31:56We might be stuck in the pond.
31:58But it's the good news.
31:59We have a case of beer.
32:00Nice!
32:02A few yards down, the bank firms up.
32:07Come on, baby.
32:09Yeah!
32:14Okay, we only have to do that one more time.
32:18I thought we might get to stay in the pond for a while.
32:32Should we hit the water in Vipnu?
32:34Yeah, **** it.
32:36Be ready.
32:37Oh, ****.
32:46I think we're okay.
32:48Do you have water in the back?
32:50No, we're good.
32:51I think that went underwater.
32:53Oh, the camera's wet.
32:54So we went that far underwater.
33:03Viper Dam.
33:04Yeah.
33:05So the last thing on the list for today is going over to Sulphur Creek.
33:11And I want to go have a little walk around it with Liam, who does all our exploration.
33:21So we will go see if we can get eaten.
33:26This is episode one of Parker's Mindsight Nature Documentary mini-series.
33:32Ravens are very smart.
33:34If you have food and water, a bear is going to grab it and put it in your mouth.
33:39This is episode one of Parker's Mindsight nature documentary mini-series.
33:54Ravens are very smart.
33:55If you have food in your truck and you leave your window open, right in they go.
33:58And they f*** in your truck.
34:01Not cool.
34:02Not the part of nature that I enjoy.
34:06As you can see behind us, we have a nice swallow hill.
34:09One of my favorite birds.
34:11It's kind of interesting actually.
34:13There's quite a bit of strategy into where you put your home.
34:17Because if we sit here long enough, the ravens will show up.
34:21And the ravens will sit on top of the bank and they'll kick their way down so that they
34:25can reach down and like open up the holes in the top houses and steal the eggs out of them.
34:32It's actually pretty interesting.
34:35It would be great for me if you stayed here and filmed the birds and I'll go do my thing
34:40without you.
34:52Today, Parker's crew is sluicing two cuts on his Dominion Creek claim.
34:58While they catch gold, Parker heads up to scout other pieces of ground and determine
35:07where to move next.
35:12So I'm going to go find Liam, who should be by his truck.
35:16Oh yeah, there he is.
35:19To help him find the best gold-rich ground, there's just one man for the job.
35:25You want to go take a cruise down Sulphur?
35:27Let's do it.
35:29Drill expert Liam Ferguson.
35:31All right.
35:32Looks like you've already been washing rocks.
35:36Yeah, we've got a few done.
35:40Over the years, Liam and his million-dollar sonic drill have prospected ground for Parker
35:47across Alaska and the Yukon.
35:49Dude, you hit a nug.
35:52And last season...
35:54Green is good, red is bad.
35:57He helped to identify a potential 80,000-ounce, $200 million prize at Dominion Creek.
36:04That's a lot.
36:07Yeah.
36:09But Parker's vast claim has several remote tributaries yet to be explored.
36:16Yeah, Parker, where are we going?
36:23We're going to some little creek that's about 20 minutes away.
36:29The creek that the old timers hammered and nobody's ever touched it in 100 years, that
36:34classic story.
36:37When prospecting, modern gold miners look for signs that the old timers from the 1890s
36:44found in a location.
36:45An indication there could mean good gold is still present.
36:52So you don't know much about this creek at all?
36:55No.
36:56Parker and Liam first check out Sulphur Creek.
37:02There's some sign of activity.
37:09What's that joint called?
37:10He's a woodworker here.
37:16That's pretty old.
37:17If that's too narrow, it'd be a shaft.
37:18It could have been a small person.
37:23Sluice box.
37:27My guess would be like a boom gate for hydraulic-ing all the material out.
37:34Prospectors first found gold at Dominion Creek back in 1896.
37:39After 130 years, miners have pulled out an enormous 2.7 million ounces.
37:48At today's gold price, worth a staggering $6.2 billion.
37:55But the old timers' primitive equipment didn't catch all the gold, leaving behind lost treasure
38:01in the tailings or down abandoned mine shafts.
38:06Let's go up there and have a look.
38:12But see, it's super flat in here.
38:17Here's a piece of pipe.
38:18Really we're looking for old shafts or piles of tailings, because there was no machinery
38:23mining up here other than where I parked.
38:26So find a pile of rocks, tell me.
38:30Or like slumps.
38:31Yeah.
38:32Shafts look like just holes.
38:34Or someone go, ah!
38:36And then you can't find them.
38:38That's what we want.
38:39That's what we're looking for.
38:45There we go.
38:46We're just going to stop for one second.
38:47Why?
38:48So that everyone can catch up to you for one second.
38:51Everyone's here.
38:52Liam has to go.
38:53I know.
38:54Ah!
38:55There he goes.
38:59Yeah, I mean, if we'd have found some shafts or some tailings piles or something, I would
39:02have gotten more excited.
39:03Carter, maybe you should give him a ride home and I'll do a few pans.
39:07Okay.
39:08With no shafts or tailings found, Parker checks the riverbank for gold.
39:16It's the job of a gold miner to mine the best ground they can possibly find.
39:19And so if you're not looking for better ground, then you're not really doing your job.
39:25Ideally, you would do a pan on bedrock, because I don't know how high off bedrock we are here.
39:33And it could be really good ground, but not find anything in a face like this, you know?
39:42I think one of the most interesting parts of exploration that I enjoy is there's been
39:49basically thousands of people that have looked at every single one of these creeks and every
39:54single area that we're looking at still now in the last 125 years.
40:03One, two, bigger pieces.
40:07One, two, three tiny pieces.
40:10Five colors, and it would take like a thousand yards to make an ounce of gold up this ****.
40:17I wouldn't quite say the creeks have died, but darn close.
40:23With so little gold found, Parker won't move his operation here.
40:30True failure?
40:32Someday I'll find out what that's like.
40:35I'm sure it's coming.
40:48I actually had fun today. It was nice.
40:52You know, spent some quality time talking about life and work,
40:57and went and looked at some ground.
41:00Probably a little less productive than a typical day,
41:03but I had you to drag around, so it's kind of expected.
41:09Well, this is me.
41:15Good night.
41:16Good night, Parker.
41:17Good night.
41:18Are you just filming my super wet **** right now?