Friday night is Gold Rush night, and we are back hitting the paydirt with Tony Beets and his crew.
Tony Beets’ last-ditch plan? Journey a hundred miles of the mighty Yukon River to Thistle Creek, dismantle the well-worn dredge and get as much of it back before the Yukon freezes up for the winter.
Tony states the obvious: “We got ice!”
In our exclusive footage below, Brad meets Tony to discuss moving and dismantling the 70-year-old dredge before winter hits hard. He is shocked at how much ice there ius around the structure.
The challenge is to get the dredge in Dawson City extricated from its icy grip and get it up the Yukon river to Thistle Creek. Piece of cake, right?
Not if Tony’s potty mouth’s got anything to do with it. Tony says: “All we gotta do is get it off the f****** sandbank!”
Poor Brad gets in the way, and Tony screams: “Just get the f*** off,” as they chip away at the frozen river nestling the metal rig.
We also see son Kevin Beets working on this problem, as he swears a long string of unintelligible dialogue — even more than his dad. Tony tells him that he doesn’t care for “that ice”.
Tony uses a forced air heater to warm the engine room and heat up the rig. The forced air heater works well as Kevin and Brad coordinate with Tony and some welders to finally get the dredge up and off the sandbank.
In a touching moment, Tony says he must wave goodbye to the “old lady,” his wife Minnie Beets, who is on the banks watching them sail on the river as she waves away.
After five months of delays, Tony’s power barge is finally heading upriver to bring back his dredge.
Gold Rush airs Fridays at 9/8c on Discovery,