Chris Doumitt
BACKGROUND: Carpenter
HOMETOWN: Portland, OR
Chris Doumitt is the only remaining original crew member of Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush show, now finishing the 12th season – That is a lot of dirt and gold. These days Chris can be found with a big smile on his face and a Doumitt cigar between his teeth while extracting as much gold as possible from the sluice-boxes. Chris prides himself on his extreme attention to detail in the gold room. He is respected and well-known for his ability to maximize the crews gold yield – well over 99.9% collection rate.
Chris’ gold mining career happened by accident. In 2010, season 1, he was the master carpenter asked to build a cabin for Greg Remsburg and his family, (who was originally part of Todd Hoffman’s first mining crew.) The job was meant to take ten days, but Chris ended up staying with Todd’s crew for five months and learnt how to gold mine by trial and error. 11 years later he is the last man standing from season 1 and part of Parker’s crew, breaking gold mining records each year.
Chris says panning for gold gives him a thrill, “like opening a Christmas present.” As one of the hardest and consistent workers on the team, he credits his legendary work ethic to growing up on a farm. Chris remembers learning to drive a tractor before he was even tall enough to see through the windshield, “Being a farm boy, you don’t have working hours. You do the job for as long as it takes until it’s done.”
When not on the claim, Chris enjoys making a variety of his own wines using grapes from the beautiful northwest as well as working on his golf game and catching up with family and friends – of course while enjoying his own high quality cigars everyday.