Who is Tom Oar?

Tom was born in 1943 in Illinois, USA. The unlikely reality TV star is the son of Chike Oar, who starred in the US Wild West shows that were popular from the 1870s to the 1920s. Little is known about Tom’s childhood and adolescent years; in his early 20s, he started combo riding but stopped for health reasons, and chose to settle down in Montana’s Yaak River Valley with his wife Nancy.

Tom and Nancy’s unconventional new home was a cabin 50 miles away from the nearest food store. However, they had little need for Walmart or Costco, as both knew how to hunt, gather, and make their own food. The couple used tanned deer skins to make artisanal products – mainly clothing items such as trousers, moccasins and jackets – which they would then sell every time they visited town.

Despite having no professional training, Tom is considered one of the best animal skin tanners in the country. He and Nancy began receiving orders for hundreds of products, and could hardly keep up with the high demand. Somehow, the couple also found time to bear and raise three children named Chad, Jack and Keelie, but who all moved to Chicago in their early adulthood.

Tom and Nancy led a relatively tranquil life until the early 2010s, when they were approached by the creators of the History channel reality series “Mountain Men”. Tom is one of the stars of the show alongside Jason Hawk, Morgan Beasley and others; Nancy and the second-generation Oars prefer to appear only sporadically.

The former rodeo cowboy and his wife were allegedly considering a move to Florida; however, they had a change of heart and were seen in the season 11 premiere of “Mountain Men”, preparing for the Yaak River Valley’s harsh, long winter. In the second episode of the latest season, Tom and his longtime partner Sean McAfee were reunited, and set up their annual winter trap line.

Tom is a laidback individual who needs little in life to be happy; despite being a household name for millions of viewers, he gives few interviews and sees no need to be in the spotlight. In a rare 2019 interview, he shared that he and Nancy had been visited by hundreds of fans over the years, including honeymooners from Switzerland.

“The fans are really important to me, and that’s really neat to meet all the different people and talk to ‘em,” Tom added – “There’s always somethin’ of interest, and there’s always interesting people to meet.” He also spoke about his possible intentions of retiring. As it happens, viewers of “Mountain Men” were shocked to learn of the tanner’s serious health problems, which forced him and Nancy to leave the comfort of their cabin and make an 80-mile journey to the nearest health clinic.

In the fourth episode of season 11, Tom woke up in the middle of the night unable to catch his breath. Cardiologists discovered that fluid was settling in the TV star’s lungs, and his heart wasn’t functioning properly. Tom was put on heart medication and instructed to wear a heart rate monitor; the cardiologists also wanted him to wear a defibrillator vest.

The last update regarding Tom’s health came in late September 2022. He and Nancy have yet to share if they will return to “Mountain Men” for its twelfth season, or finally retire.

“Mountain Men” Cast

The reality series “Mountain Men” premiered on the History Channel in May 2012, and follows its unconventional and mostly male cast, which is scattered around various states. If the title wasn’t clue enough, the Mountain Men live without the daily comforts the general public is used to, and must rely on their tenacity and skills to survive and thrive, but are actually happy with their lifestyle.

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One of the main cast members is Eustace Conway, who lives on a plot of land in North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains that he has affectionately nicknamed Turtle Island. To make a living, Eustace teaches basic wilderness survival skills, and harvests firewood using ancient techniques. Preston Roberts, Eustace’s friend, frequently appeared in the series until his death in 2017. One of the main obstacles Eustace has had to overcome is the fight to maintain ownership of his land, after being threatened by a lien against it.

Next is Marty Meierotto, who lives with his wife Dominique and daughter Noah in the minuscule town of Two Rivers, Alaska. Once a month, he flies his small aircraft to the Alaska North Slope where he has a cabin, and collects fur using animal traps. Naturally, Marty is used to maneuvering snowmobiles and withstanding harsh weather conditions as part of his job.

The mountain lion hunter Rich Lewis and his wife Diana live in Ruby Valley, Montana. Rich has a loyal team of hounds to help him track mountain lions; however, he bowed out after a few seasons to lead a more comfortable lifestyle in his golden years. Jake Herak is a fellow mountain lion hunter who lives in the Tobacco Root Mountains of Montana.

George Michaud and Charlie Tucker are the show’s resident fur trappers. George, who is based in Idaho, camps along the Teton Range and Snake River, whereas Charlie lives near Maine’s Great North Woods and often teams up with Jim Dumond.

Kyle Bell lives in Cimarron Valley, New Mexico, with his young son Ben. A game hunter and outfitter, Kyle works across 45,000 acres of land, and juggles fatherhood with his difficult trade. Meanwhile, Morgan Beasley and his partner, Margaret Stern, are licensed bush pilots who live in the Alaska Range.

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Jason Hawk and his family live near The Ozarks, Arkansas. A master blacksmith, Jason has his own business named Jason Hawk’s Outlaw Forge Works. Thousands of miles away, Mike Horstman is a bear hunting guide who lives on Alaska’s Kodiak Island with his beloved dog Adele.

Josh Kirk, his wife Bonnie, and their daughter Eden live in Wind River Range, Wyoming. Josh is a ranch manager and game hunter, while Bonnie devotes herself to taking care of Eden. Last but not least are Kidd and Harry Youren, two brothers who work as game hunters and cattle ranchers in the rugged Sawtooth Wilderness of Idaho.

The Truth about “Mountain Men”

Almost all the cast members of “Mountain Men” are private individuals, who like peace and quiet when filming wraps up. For this reason, fans don’t know much about the reality stars’ lives behind the scenes. Nevertheless, we’ve managed to gather up interesting trivia about the show, and the men who star in it.

Eustace was inspired by Henry David Thoreau to run a nature school on his property, and it was a roaring success for over two decades. However, county officials claimed to have discovered safety violations, and shut the school down in February 2012. The sudden crackdown came as a shock to Eustace and his staff, as no safety violations had ever been found during prior inspections. Eustace took the case to court and won, as the state of North Carolina passed a law the following year which provided an exemption for his school.

Months later, a neighborly dispute between Eustace and a woman named Margaret Palms soon turned ugly. In an interview with The High Country Press, Margaret claimed that she and Eustace had been good friends until he disputed the property line they’d peacefully shared for years. According to Margaret, in December 2012 Eustace “went nuts”, adding: “He went and tied our gate shut, so we couldn’t get out and he put posters all over our gates, mailboxes, fences. Then he put up big wooden barriers, so we couldn’t get out.” Luckily, the trespassing charges against Eustace were dropped in May 2013, due to insufficient evidence.

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Rich Lewis is one cast member who was already a local celebrity before shooting to mainstream fame thanks to “Mountain Men”. In 2007, a mountain lion killed two dogs in Twin Bridges, Montana; the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks reached an agreement with Rich, which allowed him to hunt down the dangerous animal. Rich’s skills saved the day, and prevented a tragedy from occurring in Twin Bridges, as he was able to trap and kill the animal in record time.

Rich is clearly a beloved figure on the show, as when his loyal dog died in season four, three fans of the show travelled 1,700 miles to visit him on his homestead, bringing with them a new canine companion. The heartfelt gesture wasn’t lost on Rich, who was extremely grateful.

Sadly, it’s not all good news for the show, as various news outlets have reported its scripted or staged elements. Tom Oar himself is quoted as saying: “They always have to make it seem more dangerous. I’m too boring otherwise,” and shared that the show’s producers went so far as to edit in shots of bears, and pretend that they were on his property.

Eustace also confessed to something similar in his biography, “The Last American Man”, which was written by Elizabeth Gilbert and published by The Associated Press. Eustace told Elizabeth that every time he went out in public, he would “deliberately try to present myself as this wild guy who just came down off the mountain, and I’m aware that it’s largely an act.”

The show also portrays its cast members as totally off-the-grid individuals, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet. The reality is that this is a long way from the truth. Tom previously admitted that, despite living in an area with limited internet access and no cellphone service, he and Nancy watched “Mountain Men” together every Sunday night… and even if some cast members are relying on paychecks from the History Channel to stay afloat, others such as Eustace, are believed to be worth well over six figures.

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Eustace is believed to be the richest cast member, as prices for his workshops start at $300 per person. Obviously, the History Channel has downplayed Eustace’s wealth, and the TV star’s official “Mountain Men” bio claims that he had to rely on a grassroots lumber operation to secure his financial future. Kyle Bell is also believed to be a millionaire thanks to his business, Folsom Outfitters, which charges up to thousands of dollars for its services.

As mentioned, a pivotal part of Eustace’s early storyline on the show was the “man versus government” angle. In episode two of the first season, he was filmed reading a letter in which the government threatened to take his property if he didn’t pay his taxes. As it happens, Eustace was entrenched in a legal battle at the time, but with a woman named Kimberly Baker.

Kimberly had visited Eustace’s Turtle Island school in 2015, and was struck with a stray rock during a slingshot demonstration that left her with permanent blindness in her right eye. Naturally, she filed a lawsuit which was settled by Eustace and his employees. The reality TV star agreed to a mediated settlement of $75,000, and was supposed to mortgage part of his property to get the money.

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As Kimberly failed to receive payment, she took Eustace to court, but it would take him until April 2012 to pay up. During this time, Eustace was filming for “Mountain Men”, but the show made him out to be an innocent victim who had done nothing wrong. Eustace was later asked about Kimberly’s lawsuit, but gave a vague answer, and claimed that his contract with the History Channel prevented him from speaking on the matter.

Users of Off-Grid, a website that prides itself on providing updates and reports about the off-grid community, are highly skeptical about the Mountain Men and their authenticity. Some netizens claim that Eustace tried to pass off a Lyman rifle as a handmade one, whereas others have made scathing comments such as: “These guys stumble from one problem to the next as if they are missing half their brains. Why would anyone live like that? If this was real they should all be dead already and the show should have been over long ago.”

Whatever the case, “Mountain Men” remains popular within its target demographic, and looks like it’s here to stay on the screen.

What is “Gold Rush”?

“Gold Rush”, which was styled “Gold Rush: Alaska” during its first season, is a Discovery reality series that follows gold mining companies run by various families, with most of them situated in Alaska and Canada; other episodes are also filmed in western North America and South America.

Season one premiered in December 2010, and chronicled the brave but risky journey of six Oregon natives to Porcupine Creek, Alaska. Having lost their jobs, these men had nothing left to lose, and travelled thousands of miles to prospect for gold; most of them had absolutely no experience in gold mining, and learnt the tricks of the trade as they went along, while filming.

Todd Hoffman, leader of the Hoffman crew, ran into various problems during season one: for one, his wash plant broke down several times and slowed operations down considerably. Although the show’s on-site mechanic, James Harness, saved the day several times, Todd also had to ask for help from his good friend Dave Turin, seeing as Dave had worked on his family’s quarry for many years.

Halfway through the season, the arrival of the mining expert “Dakota” Fred Hurt ruffled plenty of feathers, and one particularly memorable episode saw two cast members enmeshed in a physical brawl. The Hoffman crew mined 14.64 ozt of gold as a result of their creativity and sheer hard work, and the show was renewed for a second season.

The Schnabel and Hurt crews joined the series in its second season. A more generous budget, better equipment and some background experience helped the crews make bigger profits and mine more gold than the last time. The Beets crew made its first appearance in season four, whereas the Lewis and Ness crews joined in later seasons of the show.

Fred worked with the Hoffman crew in Porcupine Creek, and Guyana’s Mazaruni Claim during seasons one and two; in season three, he became a regular cast member. Viewers witnessed Fred’s most personal side, when he had to cope with the sudden death of his father-in-law; other cast members rallied around the outspoken gold miner, and provided their unconditional support, despite their differences.

Despite the Yukon government classifying miners as essential workers, filming for the show’s eleventh season was affected by the coronavirus pandemic, as film crews were considered non-essential. Canada’s travel lockdown was implemented at the start of the filming season, meaning that the production crews were essentially trapped in another country, and only one member of the filming crew was onsite when the mining season began.

Although most of the mining crews decided to skip season 11, it aired in October 2020 and still received positive reviews. The 12^th season premiered in September 2021, focusing on the Beets, Lewis, Ness, and Schnabel crews: a staggering 8,309.75 ozt were mined by the Schnabel crew, whereas the Lewis crew mined a mere 110 ozt.

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Cast Members

The well-known Parker Schnabel is one of the show’s youngest miners, but his age hasn’t stopped him from being considered the best at what he does. Since he joined “Gold Rush” in season two during his teenage years, Parker has mined almost $68 million of gold – almost 40,000 ounces – by working on one of his grandfather’s old claims. The show’s producers were understandably impressed by how a then-16-year-old Parker helped the Hoffman crew out during season one, and asked him to join fulltime.

Parker’s grandfather, John, spent all his life working as an Alaskan miner, and taught the prodigy everything he knew. In season two, Parker excavated the Big Nugget Creek mine by himself and yielded just 34 ounces. However, he bounced back in the following seasons, and yielded 7,509 ounces in season 11 – over twice as much as the other crews. These days, Parker has approximately 500,000 Instagram followers, and has starred in the spin-off show “Gold Rush: Parker’s Trail”.

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Next on the list is Tony Beets, the richest cast member of “Gold Dutch”, who is instantly recognizable thanks to his signature white beard. The Dutch miner became something of a breakout star after joining the series in season five; he’s also the most experienced cast member and highly competitive by nature. Tony’s years-long feud with Parker and Rick Ness has become one of the show’s main storylines and provided many entertaining moments.

Tony, who runs his crews with the help of his wife and daughter, has been in the gold mining industry for decades – but his end-of-season yields haven’t always been good. To date, the Dutchman has mined almost $29 million of gold – over 16,000 ounces – and would be the most successful miner on “Gold Rush” if it weren’t for Parker.

All of Tony’s children are part of the family business, with his wife Minnie in charge of the company’s paperwork and accounting. The couple have been together for decades and own a winter home in Arizona, and a flashy six-figure Mercedes convertible amongst other trinkets. Tony is reportedly worth $15 million, and runs the Tamarack Mine; most of his employees are local teenagers. In a 2015 episode of “Gold Rush”, two of his employees were filmed dousing the dredge pond with gasoline and setting it on fire. Tony was charged under the Yukon Waters Act, and he and his company had to pay an eye-watering $31,000 fine after the incident.

Todd Hoffman is an interesting case study; although he’s been praised for his mediatic personality and showman’s instincts, it hasn’t been enough to make up for his shortcomings, namely his lack of experience. Despite improving his performance in seasons two and three after yielding less than 15 ounces in season one, everything went wrong for Todd and his crew when they travelled to the South American jungle in season four and mined just two ounces of gold before switching to diamond mining – with equally disastrous results.

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In season six, Todd mined 3,032 ounces, his personal best. However, he left the show and the industry two seasons later, having tried and failed to open mines in his home state of Oregon. During his time on “Gold Rush”, Todd mined $14.3 million of gold – over 8,000 ounces. Although it’s not an impressive amount by any means, TV producers clearly want to see Todd back on the small screen, as he’s been given his own show named “Hoffman Family Gold”, which sees him travel to Alaska and try to turn around a failed mining operation in just six weeks.

Despite the show receiving largely positive reviews, one biting netizen said: “Well, after Todd’s horrendous time on Gold Rush with failure after failure, poor decision after poor decision for some reason, he’s been given another chance. Why? I have no idea.” Todd, however, is determined to prove the naysayers wrong.

Next up is Rick Ness, who became known as Parker’s longtime operator and foreman, before replacing Todd as a full-time cast member in season 9. Rick has thousands of female fans and is jokingly dubbed the resident heartthrob of “Gold Rush”, thanks to his striking tattoos, sleeveless shirts, and good looks; however, his transition from foreman to crew leader has been anything but easy.

Low yields, mounting debts, and low morale are just some of the problems Rick and his crew have had to overcome over the seasons. Although Rick has been helped out by Fred and other main cast members, his lack of experience has also led to some disastrous decisions, as he doesn’t always take other crew leaders’ advice. With that said, Rick has yielded almost $5 million worth of gold in his first three seasons as a crew leader, which is a promising start.

Dustin and Fred Hurt, known as the Dakota Boys, joined in season two, leasing Todd’s mine when the latter missed a payment. The father-son duo travelled to a deposit known as the Glory Hole in season three, which Todd’s father, Jack wanted to mine; however, their plans to get one up on the Hoffman crew failed due to malfunctioning water pumps and bad weather conditions.

The Dakota Boys yielded almost $1 million of gold in three seasons, and went on to star in their own spin-off show, “All That Glitters”, before appearing in “Gold Rush: White Water”. Their best yield was in season four of the main series, when they mined 280 ounces; Fred is now semi-retired, but Dustin is keeping the family business alive, with his talented crew members.

Fred Dodge is also an integral part of the show and considered one of the most successful cast members, although his gold yields aren’t tallied. As his help was of invaluable enormous use to the floundering Hoffman crew in seasons one and two, they didn’t hesitate to add him to their team full-time.

Fred left the Hoffman crew in season four, but returned in season five. He’s appeared sporadically in the show ever since ,and also has a busy work schedule when not filming; other crews he has helped include the Lewis crew in season 11. In 2021, the enigmatic miner – who has no social medi,a and rarely gives interviews – hosted “Freddy Dodge’s Mine Rescue”, a six-episode special. Although the show wasn’t renewed for a second season, fans hope to see Fred in the newest season of “Gold Rush”.

The Truth about “Gold Rush”

“Gold Rush” is a show brimming with competitive and larger-than-life characters, who work in a highly stressful environment. For this reason, it’s not unusual to see miners engage in screaming matches from time to time; naturally, this has led to fans questioning if the series contains scripted elements.

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According to reputable sources, Discovery pays its miners depending on how much time they spend in front of the camera. Instead of filming everything, the film crew sets up shots whenever and wherever they feel is best, meaning that some miners act out to get more screentime. In one particularly memorable episode, a verbal argument between Todd Hoffman and one of his crew members turned so ugly that others had to intervene. Although some viewers gave Todd the benefit of the doubt, saying that he was under a lot of pressure, others wondered if he didn’t deliberately stage the argument.

“Gold Rush” isn’t exactly kind to wildlife either. The show’s crew reportedly destroyed a salmon habitat, after driving a 50-ton piece of mining equipment through it; although salmon habitats are protected, the crew claimed that they were allowed to drive their machinery across streams and rivers. On another occasion, a bear wandered too close to the miners, and was tracked down and killed by Mike Halstead, who was strongly criticized for his actions, as the bear was retreating.

Like Dustin Otteson and Dustin Hurst, Mike is just one of many miners who vanished from one episode to another, and was never mentioned again; this can be somewhat confusing and frustrating for viewers, especially as no explanation is given. After six seasons, Dave Turin also disappeared from “Gold Rush”, although in his case it was due to a brawl between himself and another miner.

As is the case with the best reality shows, certain cast members are carefully edited and portrayed as bad guys, to make things more interesting. For example, former cast member Jimmy Dorsey sensationally claimed that he was deliberately painted in a negative light and that the show’s production team wanted to create a character, instead of show the world who he really was. Jimmy took things one step further by claiming that the show was largely scripted, with many of the events – including his leaving – being planned out in advance.

Mining communities have also sued the producers and cast members of “Gold Rush” many times. After the 2017 season, some disgruntled residents of South Park, Colorado, filed a lawsuit to prevent the Hoffman crew from returning to their claim in 2018. Although most of the complaints were noise-related, other small communities have alleged that the show’s cast members were mining in residential land.

Whatever the truth is, “Gold Rush” is still one of Discovery’s most popular shows. Season 13 has been airing on the network since October 2022, and has so far received positive reviews.