Let's Go Mining! The Ridiculous Awesomness of "Gold Rush: Alaska" | The Source Weekly - Bend, Oregon

Let's Go Mining! The Ridiculous Awesomness of "Gold Rush: Alaska"

The Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush: Alaska" is hilariously engaging.

Reading this story in the Oregonian this morning about the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush: Alaska, made me realize that I finally have to write something about this oddly engaging reality show.

For those who haven't seen this series yet, it's essentially about a group of out-of-work Oregonians from outside of Portland who head up to Alaska to mine for gold. But here's the thing: few, if any, of them have any idea what they're doing and the whole affair is essentially a train wreck -- which makes for great watching. Oh, and they carry around a ton of guns, ostensibly for protection from bears (one of which they kill during the series) and for some reason brought their kids out to the site.

You need to use a flashplayer enabled browser in order to view this video

OH! And there's a kind bearded man named Jimmy that the lead guy is constantly berating.

And ANOTHER thing! They never seem to do any mining, at least not in the first three episodes, and are hilariously incompetent and/or lazy and enjoy saying vague Tea Party slogans. Except for Jimmy, of course.

But as the Oregonian story points out, the show has Alaska officials worried that more Americans from the lower 48 will catch gold fever and head up to the wild to begin mining -- something that requires proper permitting and knowledge to minimize environmental damage.

Regardless, this show is totally worth watching, especially if you enjoy watching people yell at each other and hit trucks with tractors and not find gold.


Comments (6)
Add a Comment
For info on print and digital advertising, >> Click Here