[man 1] Get outta here! Get!
[bleep]
Get! Get out of here!
Dustin. Dustin!
[man 2] What is that?
Holy [bleep]
[man 2] You all right?
[man 1] I just-- Get out of there!
- Get the [bleep]. - Is there a bear in there?
[man 1] Find a freaking God-dang big Alaskan grizzly mouse.
- [all laughing] - [squeaks]
[man 1] Son of a bitch!
Get him, Carlos!
[bleep] bastard!
He's got a miniature bear. He's got a [bleep] bear in his...
In his cabin.
[laughing]
[bleep]
- Get him! - [squeaks]
Son of a bitch!
- [laughs] - [Carlos] Do you think he took off?
[both] No. He gone.
That does it.
[all laughing]
[Dustin] All right. Time to get back to work.
[Carlos] Mouse traps. On my list.
[bleep] Oh!
- [bleep] - [screams]
He's done for the season.
[Carlos] Something popped.
We gotta have a problem. If we didn't have problems, it'd be too easy.
- Hey, hey, hey. - How's it going, man?
Here we go.
Walking to Fred's 80th birthday party.
He's still walking around. Can you believe that?
[all singing] ♪ Happy birthday Dear Fred... ♪
Love you, Fred.
Yeehaw!
[voice over radio] This means that dowsing rods are right.
- See that? - [man laughs]
- [Dustin] Anything? - Nothing yet.
Find me some gold!
We had an advantage, we're losing that advantage.
We got gold!
Thank God!
Let's do this.
[narrator] Dustin and his crew
are a month into a make or break season
on Nugget Creek.
Looks good to me. You ready?
Let's do this. Suit up.
[man 1] Watch out. It's nugget deep there.
Woah! That [bleep] deep, dude.
[narrator] Returning from one of their worst seasons ever,
Dustin's operation is battling against financial collapse.
We got skunked the last two days.
We got too far off the center of the creek.
Time to go back to the center of the creek
and see if there's any more gold down there.
[narrator] Last week...
[Paul] Oh, wow.
[narrator] ...Paul hit a hot spot in the center of the creek.
That's hard pack. Cha-ching!
[laughs] I see gold.
- Yeah! - It doesn't get any better than this.
[cheers]
[Carlos] That's after two dives, dude.
Finally all this hard work's gonna pay off.
[Paul] Turn it. It looks like right angle.
There's a crack going down.
He's gonna follow that crack and it's gonna come up here.
I'll bet this is the little plunge pool right here.
[narrator] But when they strayed from the centerline...
No gold on that side.
[narrator] ...their hot streak turned cold.
- Nothing. - You've got to be kidding me.
[narrator] Now, Dustin's got a new plan.
Time to get back to it.
Out towards the center.
Gonna go find a paystreak and follow the paystreak.
We're gonna check the box all the time.
Every couple hours.
I got no time for this exploration stuff right now.
We need to get paid!
We need gold.
- James, you're in today. - Yes, sir.
I'm gonna make it easy on the guys today.
Let me dredge and hopefully nobody
tries to tell me what I need to do with my dive.
Let the gold hound find the gold.
- You got me, James? - Yep. I got you.
[Dustin] All right. There's a few rocks right here
but you're just gonna go to that wall, right?
Follow that edge
and let's just figure out where the gold starts.
- Yeah. - I'll be down again. We're gonna double down,
we're gonna find out what's in the box.
- I think it's over there. - I think so, too.
[Dustin] Air check.
- Feeling good? - Feeling pretty good. Feeling pretty confident.
All right. James, I need some nuggets, man.
We need some nuggets.
- [James] All right. - I need you to find 'em, seriously, today.
You got it.
[James] This is nice. Oh, my God.
This is really nice.
[Dustin] This season, we're wasting a lot of time.
We had an advantage, we started early.
We're losing that advantage right now.
We're looking for life changing gold,
which means we need a paystreak.
[narrator] To get back on the big nuggets,
James must return towards the center of the creek,
search for the proven paystreak
and then follow the gold.
[Dustin] Somewhere there's a gold line.
We're hoping that it's right here
and he hits the center of it and then we'll follow it.
Whoo! Yeah!
[Dustin] Hey, James, grab a drink for a little while.
I'm gonna go ahead and check the box here.
[James] Yeah.
Oh, wow. That's something else.
I wanna show you what's in the box, hold on.
- [James] Na-huh. - [Dustin] Big rock.
Nothing yet.
Come on, gold.
I know you're down there.
Free yourself.
Jump into my dredge.
[man 1] I ain't seen one bit of anything red coming over the back yet.
[Paul] Not a single thing.
[Dustin] What is he doing?
He's heading straight back downhill.
[narrator] Instead of chasing the pay streak up creek...
He went under the dredge.
That's [bleep] started first time.
[narrator] ...the gold hound is going rogue.
Where are you going, man?
You going straight downstream or what?
- Huh? - [Dustin] You're underneath the dredge.
You're completely under the dredge.
[James] I found a, a hole right there that I'm cleaning out.
[Dustin] I wouldn't go any further downstream.
- [James] Yeah. - Right there, already got cleaned up by one of them.
- Does that make sense? - [James] Yeah.
[Dustin] 'Cause the hole was right there somewhere.
[James] All right. Let's get out of here.
Let's go up here.
[Dustin] Keep looking for that hard pack.
He's gotta move upstream.
That's the only way we're gonna find more gold
is just keep moving upstream.
Find me some [bleep] gold!
[Carlos] Everybody just wants gold.
[Carlos] Getting a little impatient, you know what I mean?
They wanna see half ounce, one ounce, two ounce, five ounce nugget.
Everybody is getting tired.
We need our second win.
[narrator] For three hours, James methodically
inches his way up creek.
[Dustin] How's it looking down there, James?
[James] It's going deeper here.
[narrator] Sending five tons of material through the sluice.
[groans softly]
[James] There has to be gold in that.
Can we check?
There has to be something in that. I'm in the hard pack.
All right.
- Too many big rocks? - Nothing yet.
[James] Nothing.
Keep on looking, man.
I wanna see some red dirt.
[James] I'll find a nugget. They're here somewhere.
I think you're in the right area,
just haven't seen any red dirt come through.
[James] I'm trying. [grunts] We'll get it.
It all looks like this. Clear.
So don't know if it's all washing down on top of him
and that's all he's screening [bleep] just washing down.
That's just old [bleep] we lost last year.
It's not the right color.
This don't make no sense, man.
- Hey, are you on bedrock? - [James] Yep.
That layer that I just sucked up
is pretty much right on bedrock but it's this thick.
I just poked into it.
I think you're on the edge of this start, all right?
Let's get this going. Throttle it up.
Hold that thought.
- [man 1] He needs to be this [bleep] way. - Yeah.
I think so too. He needs to come that way a little bit.
- Really? - Yeah, 'cause if you look at that straight line
with that straight line, it would put the middle right through here.
- [Carlos] Think so. - [Dustin] Hey, James.
Uh, what is it looking like this way a little bit?
It's just jaggedy. You know,
it's some kind of a layer right here.
But if you're not finding any gold,
it might be better if you come this way
and find out if they're right and I'm wrong.
- [James] Okay. - As long as you find gold, I don't care if I'm wrong.
[Carlos] Punch it right here, dude.
[James] Okay.
There's gonna be gold in this, you guys. There has to be.
Try to be patient 'cause I know
time's ticking by, but I need him to find gold.
[James] I found a pocket that goes down right here.
[Dustin] You're on it now, James.
He's got it up here too.
Wait.
Actually, he's getting some good stuff now.
I'm starting to see some red come out.
[both] There we go.
[Carlos] That's the first red I've seen in a while.
[James] Can we check? There has to be gold in that.
Y'all wanna take a look? Good to see?
[man 1] Oh. What have we got here?
Damn! We got gold!
[James laughs]
[Dustin] You've got gold!
- [James laughs] - That's a start.
Oh, thank God Thank God!
[James laughs]
Slow jackpot.
[narrator] Up ahead...
[James] I'll be gone for a day or two.
You guys just hold down the fort.
Find some gold.
- [bleep] - [screams]
[James] Carlos!
[bleep] Right here. It hurts so bad!
Hey, Fred.
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
[James] I'll find the nuggets. They're here somewhere.
[narrator] At nugget bend,
it's taken James an exhausting five hours
to hunt down the paystreak.
[man 1] I mean, it's a small piece but it's a start.
[Dustin] All right, well, where did we find it?
Right there where you're at?
Just keep coming this way a little bit
and then we'll check the box again
and I think that's the way you're gonna go.
And if we don't have to go under that wall,
our life is amazing.
[Dustin] Getting little patches of hard pack but that's it.
You find a little bit of gold but that's not enough.
[James groans] I'm getting my ass kicked.
[narrator] The hours of exposure to the 35 degree water
has pushed James to the brink.
[James] I'm just out of steam.
It's just too much.
He sounds a little bit tired, huh?
I think he's done.
[Dustin] All right. Call it a day.
Get the diver up...
Coming up. Now we're up.
Talk about digging.
Good job, man.
Whoo! That one worked me a little bit.
Oh, man. I bet.
A lot of digging.
Hey man, go check the box.
- Good job, James. - [James] Thanks, man.
- Yep. - All right.
There's a few.
[James] There's another nug.
Everybody was talking to me.
Dustin was saying, "Hey, go left, go right, let's follow it."
True [bleep] was able to
hone in on the pay streak again.
Like I said, "At the end of the day there'll be gold in the box."
Dustin said, "There better be."
And I said, "There will be."
We're on it.
[Carlos] Good job, man.
Got some gold, bro.
Got some gold, man!
All that came from the center?
[Paul] Yeah. The middle right through here.
- Still gold. - Still gold. That's plenty.
As of right now, gold streak is lining up in the middle,
but we won't know for sure until we have proven James' lead.
We wanna bleed this creek dry.
We want gold. We want nuggets.
[narrator] As daylight fades over nugget creek...
[Dustin] I hate doing this but I gotta go.
[Paul] Got family first, man.
[narrator] ...Dustin prepares for a long hard journey ahead.
I'm heading to town so I can make it over Fred's place
for his 80th birthday party.
I'll be gone for a day or two.
[narrator] Two months ago, Fred was dealt shocking news.
A diagnosis of life-threatening brain tumors.
- How long did they give you? - Anywhere from a few months to six months.
Hopefully, you make it long enough to where we can show you some gold, man.
That's my gold.
So bring me some.
I love you.
- Hope we get to see you again. - Keep in touch.
You guys just hold down the fort.
You know what to do.
[Paul] We got you covered, man.
I might be gone a couple days, so take care of everything, right?
[all] Yeah.
- Find some gold. - We will, lots of gold.
- Lots of gold. - Tell Fred happy birthday for us.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell Fred happy birthday.
Dustin's off to Fred's 80th birthday party.
We're gonna try real hard to get a lot of gold
put in the box while he's gone.
Looks good so far.
Don't know if we can get a good dive in.
Let's find 10 ounces today, man.
- [Carlos laughs] Yeah. - [laughs]
You know what? What more can Fred ask for his 80th birthday?
Then let's send him some pictures of a bunch
of big nuggets that we just found.
- [Paul] I agree. Let's do that. - Yeah, this is for Fred.
[narrator] Today's mission, pick up where James left off
and follow the pay streak up creek
in the hope that it leads to a pile of gold.
[Paul] Well, guess I'll start getting suited up.
If it wasn't for Fred, none of us would be here doing this, so...
It would definitely be good to show a lot of gold for Fred.
[Carlos] Valve open.
All right. Let's activate the gold fall.
[Paul] Have a good dive, man. Let's get us some gold.
Looks like a lot of kitty litter in right here.
I'll get that cleaned out real quick and then
give me a deep spot.
[James] Filters look good.
Dredge is running good.
And in a little bit we'll do a box check,
double down and I guarantee it, there'll be gold in that box.
Guarantee it.
[Paul] Looks like there's a little bit of harsh right there.
I see red coming up.
[narrator] Red dirt is the surest sign they're on the gold.
Whoo! Look at that [bleep].
Oh, wow!
[Carlos] Yeah, Paul, you're in the red. You are in the red.
- Seriously. - Good job.
[Paul] Yeah.
Yeah, I'm not even sure if I'm even on the bottom yet.
Pull the dredge forward just a little bit.
I can't get the nozzle in the water.
[Carlos] Copy that.
Have a freaking strange job.
Oh, [bleep]. [screams]
[James] Carlos!
[Carlos groaning]
- You all right? - [Carlos] Ah, something popped!
[groans in pain] [bleep]
[Carlos] Oh, God, no!
[groans softly]
It was just the way my leg went, man. Something popped.
We get medic down for Carlos, please.
[narrator] Over three hours from the nearest doctor,
the camera crew's medic steps in.
[Carlos groaning]
Right here. It hurts so bad.
- In here? Need to go hard. - Right there. Right there.
Man, I just saw Carlos take a tumble on the rocks over there and...
[screams]
...I thought for sure he was done for the season.
That's the last thing we need,
is someone to get hurt and have to get out of here.
[Carlos grunts] I'm in pain, dude.
[groans]
- Carlos. - [Carlos] I'm good.
No. Just sit back for a little bit. We got this.
[narrator] 1,200 miles south...
[Dustin] So right now I'm driving to Fred's place
to his 80th birthday.
He invited me, he asked me to show up, so,
I took off work and here I am.
He'll be excited for me
but he's not doing very good right now.
But it's good that I get to see him.
He's my father.
[dog barking]
- Hey, Fred. - [Fred] Hey, hey, hey, hey.
[Dustin] How's it going man?
Oh, my legs are not operating very well.
They never did.
- [Dustin laughs] - Well, they did pretty good.
- Not bad. - Yeah.
- [Fred] Little by little. - Yeah?
- [Fred] Yeah. - How is things, man?
I look like I'll make it today okay.
- Okay. - Um...
You know, if whatever, you just have to get by
and see what kind of--
What I can make out of all of this.
[groans]
Seems to be a losing battle right now.
[Dustin] Yeah.
Hey, this is like a bolt out of the blue, man.
You know, it's not exactly something you can predict.
I get it.
I don't think he'd respect me
if I came at him with a sad, sob face
and went, "Oh, how are you doing, Fred?"
No. That's not what he wants.
[Dustin] I always saw you just
flipping the machine off a cliff.
That's kinda what I thought.
[Dustin] We've got a lot of time working together,
we're both stubborn.
It was never gonna be easy working with Fred.
It was never gonna be all easy working with me.
We made it through all that.
What, you getting some gold?
[Dustin] Finding stuff.
First dive, found a half ounce nugget.
Look at how red it is, though.
Got your glasses with you somewhere?
- [Fred] Wow. - [Dustin] Feel that?
[laughs heartily]
That's hilarious.
[Dustin] We're not perfect but we've accomplished
some amazing damn things together,
bickering the whole damn way.
[Fred] That is nice.
[Dustin] It's in that red layer, for sure.
- So there's this layer about that thick. - Yeah.
And, hopefully, right now, they're back on this stuff
getting an ounce-ish a day.
Wow.
Yeah. If we can continue on this, we will get a ton of gold.
I think if we just keep right on it there, and just...
Gonna have to get down to the bedrock.
- [Dustin] That red layer. [mimicking whip] - All there is to it.
I had to trust my guys to go up there and mine without me,
- run the dredge without me. - [laughs]
Hopefully, they don't kill each other,
- or themselves. - Well, maybe they'll get some gold.
- That would be lovely. - [Fred] Then, everybody can say,
"Oh, they're getting more gold than Dustin
- when he's there." -"They don't even need Dustin out there.
He's been holding them back the whole time."
That's exactly right. Digging in the wrong place.
[laughs]
[Dustin] I'm glad I got to see you, Fred.
I don't know how Fred has the stamina even in his ailment right now.
He's in bad shape, so...
Can't believe he actually just keeps kicking. It's crazy.
[Carlos screaming]
[narrator] Up ahead...
[Carlos] What the hell?
[Paul] The whole [bleep] is backing the dredges underneath the [bleep] water.
[Wes] Shut it off!
[Paul] What the [bleep].
[Wes] Dowsing rods better work.
Dowsing rods, man. [laughs]
At this pace, I'm about to call 1-800-psychic, come to me.
Where is that gold?
[Paul on radio] Oh, yeah, we're getting a lot of material. Holy moly!
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
Paul chases the pay streak upstream.
Paul's a freaking rock star, man.
Right now, we're gonna push it as long as we possibly can.
[Paul] Our main goal is to get as much gold in the box.
We wanna make Dustin and Fred proud.
[Carlos on radio] You are so deep, Paul. Unbelievable.
[Paul on radio] I can't believe how deep it's going.
And there's still no signs of the bottom yet.
So much, I can't get the nozzle down to touch whatever I got down there.
We're gonna have to pull the dredge forward,
- and scoop everything up through the nozzle. - [Wes] Okay.
How far will it go forward?
Pull it against this wall.
[Carlos on radio] They're moving forward, Paul,
so you should get some stick right now.
How's that?
[Paul] Good deal, thanks.
- [Wes shouts] - [dramatic music playing]
- [Wes] What the [bleep] have we got going on over here? - [Carlos] What the hell?
[Paul] The whole [bleep] is backing the dredges underneath the [bleep] water.
[Wes] Shut it off!
- [Paul] What the [bleep]. - [Wes] Go ahead. We don't have a [bleep] idea.
I'm a little frustrated.
I should be dredging,
but I'm not dredging, I'm not putting gold in the box.
To me, this is a waste of time.
Was it just that the tailings had nowhere to go?
[Wes] Yeah.
[narrator] In a rush to put the gold in the box,
the crew dragged the dredge up-creek,
but failed to plan where the tailings would go.
Rock and gravel piled on top of the sluice,
sinking the most critical part of their operation.
[Wes] So, if we can get that with the long hose,
we will start over and try to save the dive.
[Carlos] All right. Well, I'm gonna go.
[Wes] The dredge hose is not long enough.
We're gonna have to pull the dredge forward.
So we were just putting tailings right in our pond
which just sank the whole back of the dredge.
So we're putting the long hose on,
and then sending the sluice box over the rear
so we don't put any more tailings in our pond.
[Paul] Ready? One, two, three. [grunts]
One, two, three. [grunts]
All right. Now, go ahead and start that. We'll see what happens.
That'll work.
[on radio] All righty, let's try this again.
Oh, yeah. It's got suction.
If all these things happen and Dustin was here, no comment.
- [Wes] Oh, this little fella was just a hiccup. - [Carlos] Yeah.
Yeah. We got red coming out now, that's what we're looking for.
Paul must be getting into the hard pack.
[Carlos] With all the mishaps that we had today,
Paul's a trooper, bro. He went back right into the water,
found the red hard pack that we've all been looking for,
the telltale sign that there is gold here.
[narrator] After a rocky start...
[Carlos on radio] Holy moly, man. You're in the red, man. You broke a seal.
[narrator] ...Paul muscles through...
[Paul on radio] That is spilled on straight now.
[narrator] ...putting in nearly five hours of dive time.
[Wes] Diver coming up.
[Carlos] You're a trooper, dude. With all that bull [bleep]
that was going on today, man,
anybody else would've said, "[bleep] this [bleep]."
[Paul] I had to see what was there. I'm goal-driven.
[Carlos] There's a little bit of gold in there, man.
- Is there, really? - Yeah, just a... a piece here and there, man.
[Paul] I mean, after all the bull [bleep] today. Mother [bleep].
[narrator] The lack of gold is a clear sign they've lost the pay streak.
It was a rough day for everybody, so,
tomorrow, we need to go back and reset.
There's gotta be gold.
[Carlos] Holy moly, man, it got cold!
[Paul] Oh, man.
We're moving upstream pretty quickly,
but we gotta figure out where the gold's at.
I got an idea, one of our good buddies,
his grandfather used dowsing rods back in the day.
They showed the areas where the gold was.
[Carlos] Does that work?
Well, if we brought these out in front of Dustin, he would say, "Mumbo jumbo."
[narrator] Dowsing is an ancient practice used to locate groundwater,
buried metals, gemstones, and oil.
The rods are said to move when the dowser moves over its target.
But scientific evidence shows dowsing is no more effective than random chance.
Despite the controversy, many like Wes and Paul
believe the practice of dowsing can lead them to the promised land.
I made these dowsing rods out of some copper wire that I had,
but I'm gonna stick a little piece of gold on the end of 'em
to charge 'em up a little bit to see if it'll help us locate any more gold.
I probably wouldn't do this if Dustin was here,
because he would think that I'm wasting time.
But he's not here, we're under our own control right now,
so we're all about getting gold.
[Paul] Then I can put a big ol' glob of that on the bottom.
[bleep]
[Wes] I dropped it.
That nugget fell right off.
What?
[Wes] God dang! The [bleep] man.
Oh, there we go. That was close.
[Carlos] Dowsing rods, man.
Old timers used 'em.
And they say it seems to work. I... [sputters and laughs]
If I hit some gold, I want 'em to cross.
At this pace, I'm about to call 1-800-psychic, come to me.
Where is that gold?
- [Wes] Can't hurt anything. - I like it. I think it's awesome.
[dramatic instrumental music]
Doesn't look too bad so far.
[Wes] Well, I'm gonna go back and forth across the creek,
try to come across some gold.
[Carlos] What do you think Dustin's gonna say?
This was a freakin' waste of time and a waste of money, huh?
To help.
- [Wes laughing] - [Carlos] See that? Right here.
[Wes] Right there.
[Carlos] All right, let's tell Paul.
Wes is trying out his new witching rods, and they crossed right there.
Maybe there's a big nugget sitting there.
I'm really curious.
[Wes] I think we can follow this.
Right here, stay on this side of that.
[narrator] Identified as a hotspot by the dowsing rods,
it's up to James to prove if this method is fact, or fiction.
[James on radio] Let's go.
I will find some gold.
Dowsing rods better work.
And my hope today is to pick out a fistful of nuggets.
Let the gold hound find the gold.
[James] Oh, boy, are we digging now.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek,
James's dig is being led to the gold from above.
[Paul] We know there's gold here.
Now we're going for the motherload.
Anything we can do right now to lighten the pressure on Dustin,
we need to do that.
I smell gold!
[Carlos] Holy moly, dude.
[Paul] That red material in that [bleep] stank pretty bad.
[Carlos] Oh, yeah?
[Paul on radio] You're in the red, James. You're in the red, man.
[James] I am the gold hound.
[narrator] 1,200 miles south in Oregon,
there is also reason to celebrate.
[whoops] Look at that car.
[narrator] Today is Fred's 80th birthday,
and he's planning on arriving to his party in style.
[Dustin] You like that green, huh?
I like it.
- Looking sharp. - Yeah, man. That's looking real good.
- Better than the black. - [Dustin] Yeah, it looks damn nice, man.
[Fred] Try to crank it up, see if it'll run.
[engine revs]
[Dustin] Oh, that's nice, Fred.
[Fred whoops]
[Dustin] Yeah, baby.
It's really damn hard to keep a steady speed with this thing.
[laughs]
When you were 20, where'd you think you'd be at 80 years old, Fred?
Ah, I don't know what I would've thought then.
Not in Oregon in a hot rod.
- Nope. - [laughs]
You just never know what life is gonna take you on.
Right?
- Here we are, Fred. - All righty.
[Dustin] That's you right there. "Welcome to Fred's 80th birthday party."
[Fred] Well, hello there.
[indistinct chatter]
Happy birthday, Fred.
- Hey, how're you doing? - [woman] I'm good.
[narrator] Family and friends from across the US
and wife Jen gather to celebrate with Dakota Fred.
Hey, how're you doing, man?
[man] It's real good to see you.
[Dustin] I brought him to his party.
I had to hold him up half the time, but he did real good.
He's still walking around. Can you believe that [bleep]?
Hey.
[Dustin] So, I'm gonna go hang out with everybody, but...
it's not my best attribute, is mingling with 50 people or 100 people.
That's just really not my thing.
I run out of things to say. I'm not that interesting.
[laughs]
I just basically wanted to come down here and see him.
The party and the nuggets, showing him, all that stuff is secondary.
I wanted to see Fred.
♪ Happy birthday to you
♪ Happy birthday dear Fred
♪ Happy birthday to you
[all cheering]
[woman] We love you, Fred.
Appreciate it, everybody.
Thank you for coming. I know a lot of you guys came from a long way off.
[all laughing]
It's been a wonderful 80 years.
I probably did a lot of things that I shouldn't have.
[all laughing]
Just wanna let you know that I'm glad that you guys have passed through my life,
and hope you meet some people as nice as me.
[all laughing]
[all cheering]
- [woman] We love you, Fred! - [all cheering]
Eh, I feel a little twirly right now.
That was cool. I enjoyed that.
Good to see a lot of people here that I know.
Some of 'em are local, some are through from Texas.
Can't believe they flew from Texas to come all the way over here.
Well, thank you, guys, for being here for this special night.
- So, here we go. - [strums guitar]
[slow instrumental music playing]
[Jen] We just had so many of our friends here in our hometown
who've come to celebrate him.
I think everything went really well
and he was happy to be here and celebrate it with his friends.
[Fred] This was my bucket list.
Had a great day. One hell of a 80th birthday.
You only get to celebrate 80th one time.
But when you've lived a good, long life,
eighty is good enough.
[laughs]
Make the most of what you got.
I'm happy with my life.
Y'all have a good day.
- [engine revs] - [man] Happy birthday.
[laughs]
[narrator] Up ahead...
[bleep]
- [James] Ancient gold, dude. - Oh, yeah!
That's badass!
Fistful of nuggets.
- [James] Fred, wish you were up here with us, man. - [fireworks explode]
[narrator] At Nugget Camp, the miners celebrate Fred's birthday,
Alaskan style.
[bleep]
[James] Oh, that was cool!
Oh, my God! [laughs]
Oh [bleep].
[bleep]
- [explosion] - [laughing]
- Look at the bucket. - [all laughing]
[all] Happy birthday, Fred!
[all laughing]
[James on radio] It's just weird down here.
There's, like, crooked edges going up and down everywhere.
There's a round rock caught in it.
There's slate hard pack.
[Wes on radio] Sounds like those are the gold caps to me.
[narrator] At Nugget Creek, James is six hours into his dive,
led by Wes's dowsing rods.
[James] I think we're close to something good.
[Wes] Let's see if I can get a line where he's at.
The dowsing rods say we got a big payday sitting right underneath us.
I got a feeling it's gonna be right here where these boulders are.
I do, too. That's exactly what the dowsing rods say.
[on radio] James, come this way.
[James] All right, I'm gonna come this way.
When I grab my dowsing rods, they come across this way.
When I get to about where he's at,
and I get just a little bit more to the center,
and then, they wanna cross.
It's probably just a good line right through here.
There's a good pay streak.
[James] Oh, boy, are we digging now.
Oh, I can smell nuggets.
[Paul] Sounds like James found some interesting bedrock features.
Lot of hard pack.
That's a good sign.
Once he gets all that cleared out,
hoping there's a lot of gold in the box when he's done.
[James] Has to be nuggets in here.
Got some solid [bleep].
So far, James has moved a lot of material. He's got a lot of rock out.
Once we find that dig spot, that's where the gold is gonna be.
[James] This is what kinda stuff I'm getting into,
rusted hard pack.
Open this thing up, get to the bottom, what Wes was talking about.
I may have seen some gold.
I just gotta get rid of some of this hard pack
and just break it up.
And once I start punching the bedrock...
- [Wes on radio] Yeah. - ...and clean out the whole area, it should produce.
[Carlos] James is definitely onto that hard pack,
and he's not even at the bottom.
So, dig, dig, dig, James! Dig, James!
Get us some gold. You're on it.
[James] Oh, my wrists are popping.
[winces]
My wrists are [bleep] hurting!
That was a hell of a long dive today.
- [James] Yeah. - [Wes on radio] I think that's good for now.
[Carlos] All right, man.
- Good job, brother. - [grunts] That was rough.
[narrator] Now, it's time to see if Wes's mystical method
has delivered the gold.
[Carlos] I don't know what to think, man.
- [Wes] See how heavy that is. - [Carlos] [bleep] yeah! Ancient gold, dude!
That's in that red layer. [laughs]
- There's smaller gold in there, too, James. - That's badass, dude.
[Wes] There's definitely smaller gold in here, too.
[James] Oh, my God, that's crazy.
It's heavy as heck.
- [Wes] This just has a different look. - [James] It does.
Damn, that's heavy.
Oh, yeah!
Whoo, James!
Handful, bro!
That's where your witching sticks told him to go.
[James] There was a pocket, dead center where Wes went dowsing.
Line of gold nuggets.
We're following that line right up the center.
All in all, it was a great dive today for me.
Pat myself on the back.
Fistful of nuggets.
That makes me happy.
[narrator] After a week of pain and disappointment,
Wes's dowsing has them back on the pay streak.
[Carlos] Question is, will Dustin be happy with the way things went?
I sure to hell hope so.
Honestly, I really sure hope so.
[narrator] On the next Gold Rush White Water...
I'm gonna try to get to the bedrock as quick as I can.
Oh [bleep].
[man] Hey, back up, back up, back up, back up...
Oh, my God! Look at that!
You've blown everybody away!
- At least five ounces. - [James] I hit the jackpot today.
Big nuggets!
Finally, on some good gold.
If all the stories are true, that one-ounce nugget is just the beginning.
We got a future, dude!
[bird screeching]
[Dustin] Hey, guys, I have some bad news.
[exhales]