Discovery’s "Gold Rush" Hits the Audience Motherlode

quotGuys and girls now are taking their destiny into their own hands and that is why Gold Rush in particular resonates with peoplequot says Carter Figueroa executive producer quotThis started out with a ragtag group of friends in 2009 and they tried to chance it all and go gold mining It resonates with people You can go out and do thisquotWell a certain type can These are folks who when a massive piece of machinery breaks get down in the muck and fix it They do not rely on others often there are no others on whom to rely except for their immediate crew Some of the miners featured in TVamp8217s No 1 show among men on Fridays and Discoveryamp8217s mostwatched series of 2020 legally cross the border into Canada in the season opener Perhaps surprisingly they are considered essential workers While mining for nuggets isnamp8217t on par with an ER doctor Fred Lewis pictured at top featured this season explains the designation is because the highly conductive gold is used in electronics such as cell phonesLewis drove to the nearest town Sumpter Oregon population 250 to get on the phone with MediaVillage After 14 years in the Army as a Green Beret medic and Korean translator Lewis took a round of shrapnel to the helmet he was wearing This left him with a concussion and migraines and he had to leave the military Like so many vets he was unsure of his next movequotThe problem with veterans is you go from being on top of your game to an unemployed individualquot Lewis 42 said quotThat is where gold mining fits right into that mold It is a new purpose and I see so much potential not even just for me but for the whole teamquotHis team which includes five other men and his wife are all former military Many have earned Purple Hearts and some lost part of their bodies on the battlefield Theyamp8217re determined to make a go of it The series features fanfavorite Parker Schnabel who has grown up on the show and mined millions Listening to the highly educated Lewis you can almost hear the siren call of gold that has lured men over the centuries He talked about the energy one feels holding itSure the money is alluring For Lewis though this isnamp8217t just about fattening his bank account When COVID struck he lost his job as the wrestling coach at a Washington high school where his wife taught In earlier seasons Lewis worked security in Papua New Guinea for Schnabel He watched and learnedAs Lewis took stock of what to do and how he could help his military brothers this season39s story came together Without spoiling how it unfolds it is safe to say that he finds a landowner who wants to help veterans Lewis and team cobble together machines that look like Rube Goldberg inventions only more complicatedIncidentally although millions of tons of dirt are moved in search of those yellow glints in the otherwise drab ground gold mining is not environmentally destructivequotOne of the things people donamp8217t realize is what they do on Gold Rush is highly regulatedquot Figueroa explained quotThey have rules and regulations and they have to restore the land to how it was before they got out there The environmental agency inspects the land before and after and itamp8217s better than it was before in some cases It is not like fracking where theyamp8217re pumping chemicals in the ground It is a fairly clean processquotTypically digging would have started in April in the year of COVID though it began in July The miners will stay until snow shuts them down Although this season was filmed during the pandemic masks were not shown at least in the twohour premiereThose in the Yukon quothad very strict regulations up therequot Figueroa recalled quotBefore any crew could go onto a mine site they had to quarantine for two weeks the mining crew and the camera crews They had COVID tests and once you were on the mine set that was it These mine sites are in the middle of nowhere Groceries are dropped off and they created a little bubble for them and thatamp8217s how they managed thatquotThat isolated life of a ghost town Bourne Oregon suits Lewis His wife Khara Lewis who serves as mine manager and load operator and the crew are the sole residents amp8211 except on the rare occasion when a couple of weekend warriors venture into the Blue MountainsquotIt is good that wayquot Lewis said quotWe donamp8217t have the distractions and COVID We have a campfire and cook food We have hunting fly fishing hikingamp160We are taking a risk and starting from scratch We put up a flagpole on 911 in the middle of this ghost town It sounds cliched but we are living the American dreamquotGold Rush is telecast Fridays at 8 pm on DiscoveryClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Discovery’s "Gold Rush" Hits the Audience Motherlode

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Jacqueline Cutler

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Discovery’s "Gold Rush" Hits the Audience Motherlode

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