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‘Gold Rush’: Rumors Swirl That Freddy Dodge Finding Colorado Mine Was Scripted

By Inquisitr Staff
Published on: 05:14 PST, Feb 24, 2017

Gold Rush fakery rumors are swirling once again on social media, as alleged proof is shared that Freddy Dodge may not have found the Colorado Freedom mine after all. Season 7 of Gold Rush continues tonight, with Episode 19, allegedly showing Todd Hoffman and his crew finally finding “monster nuggets” on top of a mountain. Mining in Colorado may have finally brought some good fortune to Todd Hoffman, after six seasons of Gold Rush misfortune for the Hoffman crew. But critics of the long-running Discovery Channel reality TV series are saying the show is scripted and have even supplied “proof” that Todd Hoffman may have already had claims to the Freedom mine that Freddy Dodge allegedly “found” in Season 7, Episode 14.

“Todd has had claim on the ground that Freddy was suppose to have found. The show is obviously scripted to mis-lead people a tiny bit.”

A post on the Gold Rush Facebook fan page from one follower shows a photo taken from the Mine Safety and Health Administration website that provides proof that Todd Hoffman has had control of the Freedom Plant mine in Colorado since September 2015. According to the post, this information would lead viewers to believe that Todd Hoffman already had claim to the Freedom mine that Freddy Dodge was allegedly supposed to have found and unveiled during a Season 7 episode, that aired on the Discovery Channel in January 2017. As social media is crying fakery once again, mining operations at the Freedom mine didn’t actually begin until August 2016, nearly a year after Todd Hoffman took control and nearly five months prior to the reveal episode on Season 7.

Discussion about Gold Rush, Season 7, on Previously TV, shares in a January 15 thread, that Freddy Dodge “rolls in with some gold,” referring to a scene in Episode 13, that aired on January 13, when Freddy Dodge shows up at Todd Hoffman’s Oregon mining site to ask for help mining gold in Colorado. Gold Rush fans were asking why Freddy Dodge even needed Todd Hoffman’s help, since he’s a professional gold prospector, who’s been “chasing gold since he was 9-years-old.”

“He already has the means to move 1,000 yards and wash the paydirt and get gold out of it. So, why does he need Todd?”

But that wasn’t the first time Freddy Dodge had come to the Hoffman crew asking for help. During Gold Rush, Season 4, Freddy Dodge approached Todd Hoffman with mining claims in the Yukon, but the Hoffman crew chose to mine in the South American country of Guyana, instead — a choice that actually caused Todd Hoffman to abandon gold and switch to diamond mining for a while, also in Season 4. Dodge joined the Hoffman crew in Guyana during Season 4, and, as a recurring guest star of Gold Rush, ironically, starting out with the Hoffman crew in Season 1, showed back up later in Season 5 to mine for gold in the Yukon with his brother, Derek Dodge.

Todd Hoffman calls on Freddy Dodge for help early on in Season 6 of Gold Rush, and then moves on to looking for new ground to mine in Oregon, also during Season 6, on Episode 18. Freddy Dodge is largely absent from Season 7 of Gold Rush, that aired back in October 2016, but once again turns up for Episode 13 and delivers some good news to Todd Hoffman about a new gold claim he’s found in Colorado at the Freedom Mine, located in Park County. The episode is recapped on YouTube, where the summary states that Freddy Dodge “needs Todd’s crew and his machines.”

But just three months ago, one Reddit user pointed out that the Hoffman crew had already worked 3,000 plus hours to date at the Freedom Plant site in Colorado, and Starcasm reported in October 2016, that Todd Hoffman had the Colorado mining site secured long before he left the mining site in Oregon. An image posted on the image hosting site Imgur shows that Todd Hoffman had control of the Freedom Plant site in September 2015, with mining operations starting in August 2016, under operator 316 Mining, LLC, which was founded by Todd Hoffman during Season 4 of Gold Rush.

Starcasm also reported that only 19 operator hours of work was logged at the Hoffman crew’s mining site in Oregon, adding “that seems barely enough to cover what we’ve seen so far this season.” Comments seemed to suggest that Todd Hoffman’s Gold Rush storylines are scripted, but that wouldn’t be the first time Gold Rush has been accused of fakery. In fact, the Inquisitr previously reported that a former cast member of Gold Rush, Jimmy Dorsey, claimed that the show is “scripted from the beginning,” and the drama acted out by Todd Hoffman on Gold Rush has always been created, “on purpose,” to fuel the fan base, adding that about “90 percent of the positive things” are cut out of the Gold Rush script — “never to be shown to the public,” according to Grunge.

[Featured Image by Gold Rush/Twitter]

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