Zeke Tenhoff built The Clark (named after a hardware store owner who sold him parts) from scratch in 2008, fine tuning the rig and making improvements every year. A suction dredge, The Clark has been cobbled together with scrap parts from the many junkyards that dot the Nome landscape. A 20-footer, The Clark is a strong design and will allow its young crew to fiercely pursue gold.
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EZEKIAL TENHOFF, 24 — OWNER
Zeke is a free-spirited Alaska native who has been dredging for the last four years. The Clark is his masterpiece, a 6-inch suction dredge that he hopes will help him pay off a $100,000 hospital debt and continue his "off the grid" lifestyle. Deep in debt, this year he's brought along a childhood friend, Emily Riedel, in hopes of putting together a strong team that will let him stay underwater and on the gold for longer. While he sometimes seems shy, Zeke is a madman underwater. His strength and drive is breathtaking, and when gold fever hits him, he can work harder than any other dredger on the Bering Sea. Zeke is talkative, smart, and loves the freedoms and challenges that full-time gold dredging gives him.
EMILY RIEDEL, 23 — DECKHAND
Emily grew up in Homer, Alaska, where she developed a great love of opera. A classically trained singer who has studied on the east coast, she's returned to Alaska with a plan: she hopes to earn enough money finding gold with childhood friend Zeke to get her to graduate school in Austria. The only female in the Nome gold dredging fleet, Emily is strong, tall and strikingly beautiful. With her eccentric father Steve working on The Wild Ranger (and watching her every move), Emily will spend her season negotiating the dangers of the gold season, as well as a minefield of relationship problems.
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