On Friday, the Discovery Channel will hark back to Alaska's gold rush era by featuring modern-day miners and the lengths (or depths) they'll go in search of riches.
"Bering Sea Gold," which takes place in Nome -- a Western Alaska town that made national headlines earlier this month -- debuts on Discovery at 9 p.m. Alaska time (channel 56 on GCI Cable in Anchorage).
Imagine "Deadliest Catch," but replace crab fisherman with sea-diving, eccentric and strong-willed miners. Like the crabbers, these miners have much to gain or lose.
"Gold makes people happy. But gold will make people do things they normally wouldn't do. It can make people greedy," says Nome resident and dredge captain John Mehelich in the show's promotional video, all the while seated in a truck as cigarette smoke blows out of his white-bearded mouth.
"And it's right out there. Right under the water. God it's a beautiful day," he says, looking out his window toward the beaches of Nome and the Bering Sea. He's cast as the grizzled man of wisdom who knows well the world he speaks of and the men who tread there.
"Treasure hunters from around the globe migrate to this remote outpost, because hidden in these frigid waters is a fortune in gold," states the narrator in the promo.
The show profiles Steve Pomrenke, owner of the largest dredging operation in the fleet, who wants $1.5 million -- about 1,000 ounces in gold -- before the short summer season ends. Every day of the three-month season is equal to about 1 percent of the total season, he explains. Lose a day and you lose 1 percent of your livelihood.
Because the Bering Sea freezes during winter, dredging is possible only when the water is ice-free. "You live by the weather up here. The weather dictates what you do," Pomrenke says in another of the show's promotional videos.
Each miner has his own story, his own financial woes and goals, and his own strong personality. Combined with the harsh challenges of the subarctic weather, the folklore of chasing gold, Alaska's gold rush history, and a self-made American work ethic, "Bering Sea Gold" has the makings to be a gold mine for reality TV.
Among the cast of characters is outsider Vernon Adkinson, an Alabama man looking to strike it big and hoping to survive his first season venturing into the endeavor. "Gold holds its value. If I can get a little bit of that stuff. Maybe I can survive the coming hard times," he says of the reasons to give it a shot.
Then there's the hard-edged captain he's hired, Scott Meisterheim, who readily admits he gets along with very few people, doesn't get paid until he gets the new operation and its greenhorns humming along productively, and has some big debts he wants to pay off.
"Basically I am dredging for my freedom," he says in one of the show's clips.
And finally, we are introduced to Nome native Zeke Tenhoff, who appears to be the youngest member of the bunch with his self-made dredge and $180,000 in recent medical bills to pay off. A female cast member describes him as an "underwater bad-ass" when it comes to diving down to the seafloor and operating the vacuum hose that pulls the sand and gold up to the dredge for separating.
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com.