Gold Rush 3: Dakota Fred Hurt’s 2012 Porcupine Creek Mining Season Updates

Dakota Fred Hurt Dustin Hurt Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek Alaska 2012

Gold Rush‘s Dakota Fred Hurt has been busy this summer. Not only did he return to Porcupine Creek with his son, Dustin, to mine for gold, he kept his fans up to date on his progress by updating his Facebook Page (with the help of his friend Jen Sheets) regularly and posting lots of photos. Now, by looking back through those updates and photos, we can reconstruct a timeline of Fred’s mining season and even something like a diary.

May 1

These photos were uploaded in June, but Fred dates the shot of Porcupine Creek covered in snow “Hello Porcupine Creek, May 1st,” so we can be pretty confident that’s when he got up to the claim and started getting ready for the season.

Dakota Fred Hurt Road to Porcupine Creek Alaska

Dustin Dakota Fred Hurt Gold Rush Porcupine Creek 2012
“This shot was taken on the Alaska Canada border just 10 miles from Porcupine Creek.”

Dakota Fred Hurt Gold Rus 3 Porcupine Creek Alaska
“On the road to Porcupine Creek”

Dakota Fred Hurt Porcupine Creek 2012 Gold Rush 3
“Hello Porcupine Creek, May 1st”

Porcupine Creek Dustin Dakota Fred Hurt Gold Rush 3
“Oops, the snow is deep.”

May 26

Setup is going fine. Should be processing first week in June. We’re the small guys, working out of our own pocketbooks with no investors. We do have some very fine sponsors for our operation and we are grateful for their support.

June 9

Hello Fans,
Yes, we’re washing rocks at the Porcupine Creek Mine. I’ll be posting updated pictures soon. Of course I can’t show all pictures. That will come later.

May was the coldest and rainiest month on record in Haines Alaska. We fought snow for two weeks, just to get to the sight. We had to rebuild the cabin, as the snow had collapsed the roof.

The crew has done an excellent job of whipping things into shape, so we are currently processing dirt. Typical equipment problems have been overcome and morale is high. We did our first cleanout yesterday and were surprised (Pleasantly) by the results.

Well,…I gotta go…..to download some pics. You guys know the drill, we can only show a few and not too revealing pics. But I’ll try to give you a taste of what’s to come.

Freddie…………….

It is tough to know when the following three pics were taken, but they are the earliest photos on Fred’s page of Porcupine Creek without snow, so I put them up here first.

Dakota Fred Hurt Dustin Porcupine Creek Gold Rush 3 Washplant

Dakota Fred Hurt Porcupine Creek Gold Rush 3 2013 Update

Dakota Fred Hurt Earl Foster Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

Notice the reflection of the camera man in the shot with Earl Foster. I’m surprised Earl was willing to show his face while the cameras were running. No matter how you tell the story of how Dakota Fred ended up with the Porcupine Creek claim (instead of Todd Hoffman), it seemed pretty clear that Mr. Foster didn’t like the way the Discovery Channel was affecting his business. Maybe before Earl made a visit to Fred, Christo made a visit to Earl!

The next set of photos was uploaded a few days later. We can’t tell whether they’re taken in the middle of the season or later, but they don’t look like they came from the end of the season, so I’m going to post them right here in the middle of the story. They give some pretty interesting clues about how the Dakota boys worked their claim this season. Looks like they have a new loader, but the D_Rocker is still doing the job for them. It also looks like they’re still pumping water up from the river using the system that the Hoffmans put together in 2010.

Porcupine Creek 2012 New Loader Dakota Fred Gold Rush 3

Dakota Fred Hurt D Rocker Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

Dakota Fred Hurt D_Rocker Porcupine Creek Alaska Gold Rush 3 2012

Of all the photos on Dakota Fred’s page, this next one is the most interesting to me. Look at the size of that rock! Look at the scrape marks on it. If that rock was sitting on a vein, then there was a lot of gold under it? And why would the Dakota boys take the time to dig it up, unless it was sitting on a vein? Maybe the reason the Discovery Channel let Fred keep these photos of the mining season up on his site was because they built up our anticipation, rather than spoiling it. That’s what this monster rock is doing for me, anyhow.

Dakota Fred Hurt Huge Rock Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

The next few shots on the site are also pretty enticing, since they show us the gold. There’s no way of knowing how many clean outs Fred had that looked this good, but if he strung a few of these together, he could be our big winner this season.

Dakota Fred Hurt Gold Cube Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

Dakota Fred Hurt Gold Riffles Gold Rusn 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

Dakota Fred Hurt Lots of Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012 Gold Cube

Dakota Fred Hurt Plate of Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012

That’s a pretty good looking plate of gold, but no one would call it the mother lode. If Fred is the miner that hit it big this season, this wasn’t the day he did it! Still, that’s a nice plate of gold–a good clean out. You don’t have to get all the gold in one day, if you keep getting it.

September 29

What a sumer! A terrific adventure that millions will share this fall and winter. New season of Gold Rush begins October 26th. Porcupine Creek will have some big surprises for this season……and we found something that will rachet up every viewers curiosity.
While the RAW TV people totally ignored Dustin and I at the MinExpo 2012, Las Vegas, we signed thousands of autographs and took nearly that many photos.

I want to thank Jen for managing this site while I was in Alaska. She has done an excellent job of keeping the keyboard cowboys at bay. She will continue her contributions to this page.

Thank you to all of you loyal fans who have understood that some of the program is “TV Moments”, and have come to my defense.

I’ll decompress for a few days and be back on the air shortly.

They call me Dakota Fred, but I’m just Freddie.

Freddie

So, Fred was feeling a little under appreciated at the MINExpo, huh? Looks like he had one friend in Vegas, at least: Parker Schnabel.

Dakota Fred Hurt Parker Schnabel Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek Alaska 2012

October 1

Thank You to all my loyal, intellegent fans. Taking a little time to ‘decompress from 5 months of cameras in my face, answering often inane questions,…… “If you can’t fix this, does this mean the end of the season for you?”…..camera in the face, camera on my work, mic’d up all day, the “Gremlins”,as we called the camera crew, listening to everything we said, occassionally caught doing certain bodily functions………Yes, nervewracking at times.

But we did have a lot of fun this year. A huge adventure, with many twists and turns. Guarranteed entertainment!
I’ll get around to answering your questions fairly soon.

and….How about that Jen????? She did a terrific job of maintaining this site all summer, even when I was unable to supply her information. I believe she has the patience of a saint.

She will continue to assist with this site. THANK YOU Jen!

So, what are our take-aways? Well, Dustin’s back. The D_Rocker is still working. Fred’s using a Gold Cube to help process his concentrate. Earl Foster is happy enough with Fred to be seen with him on camera. Parker is happy enough with Fred to take a pic with him in Vegas after the mining season. Fred had at least one good clean out. And he hauled a huge boulder up out of the ground? Was there gold under that big rock? The mother lode? I guess we’ll have to tune in on October 26th to find out.

Let us add our voice to the chorus and say, “Thanks, Jen!” too. We couldn’t have had this glimpse into the 2012 season at Porcupine Creek without her updates to Fred’s site. Here she is with a Porcupine Creek t-shirt on. Representing for her favorite miner.

Dakota Fred Hurt Jen Sheets Gold Rush 3 Porcupine Creek 2012 Facebook



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