That’s like halfway through the season, things in the Klondike are going pretty well. We have the place in good hands. I think the problem is that we’re running out of ground to mine.

27-year-old Parker Schnabel has left his crew mining Klondike gold while he heads to Alaska.

“I started my life here, and my goal is to see if there’s a lot better ground out there that we could be mining.”

With a war for ground raging in the Klondike, Parker needs to land a new claim to secure his mining future.

[Music]

“How do you make that from mining in one place to the next? It’s really difficult, and it’s a lot. It’s a thing that a lot of miners get wrong. You know, you do it too soon and you’re spread way thin. But if you do it too late, then everybody knows you’re desperate. And as soon as people in business know you’re desperate…”

Parker’s on his way to meet one of Alaska’s biggest private landowners, the legendary John Reeves.

“John’s definitely one of those guys that money talks and walks, right? And um, I’m trying not to be a [jerk], but I’m gonna always try to tie up more ground than we can handle. Hopefully I can use a little persuasion and keep him from kicking us out of the deal before we really get a chance to get in there.”

Last season, as far as deals go, Parker made a handshake deal to mine on three thousand acres of John’s ground.

“I think it’s probably time for us to have a chat with these guys out of here.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s have a look. Get out of here, Dave.”

But the pandemic closed the border. Now he must convince the land-owning giant to give him another shot — and this time, a handshake may not be enough.

“So let’s see if John and Drew are here. See what we can work out.”

“Hello, come on in.”
“Hey Drew, how you doing?”
“Doing well, good to see you.”

Yeah, Drew Langley is John’s son-in-law and right-hand man.

“I just got a hold of John, he’s on his way.”
“Oh sweet.”
“He’ll be here shortly.”
“Right on.”

“Hey Parker.”
“Hi John, how are you? Long time no see.”
“Dude, it has been a while. Good. How are you?”
“Good to see ya.”
“I’ve been good, good, yeah, been good. We’ve been busy.”

“Yeah, you’re supposed to be mining up here.”
“I know.”
“This summer.”
“I know.”
“It’s August.”
“Yeah, it’s been on the back of my mind — or the front of my mind, I should say — that we didn’t make it over here and get set up. You know, like you said, it’s August now, and that’s why I’m here, just to sit down with you guys and talk about that, and where we left off last year, and kind of trying to pick things back up if we still can.”

“Uh, you know, you got some excuses for not coming over, and a lot of them I can identify with. The world’s been kind of crazy the last year and a half. So, you know, I just couldn’t swing getting a whole nother operation going at this point, and with what’s going on in the world and what’s going on with us, you know. But at the same time, I don’t want to miss out on what’s a really good opportunity with you guys.”

“You know Parker, 35% of all the gold that came out of Fairbanks came out of that ground, right? So that’s not what they took, but it’s what they left, right?”

John owns 20,000 acres of historically rich claims. Parker’s convinced this land could be key to his gold mining future.

[Music]

“So Parker, what do you want to do?”
“Last year, when we were talking and we did a little bit of drilling out there, like we definitely had some interesting stuff, and I was hoping to finish proving that up so we can get like a pit defined and ready to be mined for the spring. It’s really what I’d like to do. And I know that it’s a big block of ground to keep tied up, and so I’m willing to do, within reason, what it takes to tie that up.”

“You can tie it up, but I’m not going to just let you tie it up on a six-pack. I figured that this conversation, if you have something that you want to offer me to tie it up, I’m all ears.”

“You guys need royalties?”
“Well, so as a sign of good faith on my end, I’m just gonna bring you some royalties in advance, if that works for you. And it’ll just go discount towards future production, and if we never produce, it’s yours to keep.”

“I’m interested.”
“So I brought that.”

“Okay.”
“Lou, I don’t drink whiskey, dude. I’m a tequila man.”
“It’s not a bottle of whiskey, John, have a look.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna look inside the bag.”
“Okay, what do you got in there?”

“So that’s um, that’s 100 ounces, like advance payment.”

Parker’s deposit is worth a hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

[Applause]

“What do you think, Drew?”
“Looks pretty good to me.”

“Okay, let’s weld it. But we expect you to be mining, because if you don’t show up next year and you’re not mining, that’s mine and won’t go against any future royalties.”
“Okay, well, it’s nothing like a little pressure.”

“Good seeing you again, dude.”
“Good to see you too. See you next time.”

“All right, well I think that went pretty good. Like we got a deal on some ground. I’m a hundred ounces poorer, but we’ve got a very productive creek to go explore.”

[Music]

“I have a lot of respect for Parker for showing up like he did today. He’s put enough of a down payment on his future for me to rely on our future. The guy knows what he’s doing, and he’s a young guy. And there’s not a lot of young guys with that big…”

Parker secured the ground, but it’s a huge gamble. He still doesn’t know if the old-timers left any gold.

“And of course I’m going to hope that we come up with tons and tons of gold, but we’ll just see. We better get the drill turning. I would admit I’m behind this year, I’m down on people, but I know for a fact that this is going to work.”

So Rick Ness is out to prove he has what it takes to hit it big. Once Parker’s foreman, he’s been on a roller coaster ride in the first three seasons running his own operation.