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By Kristi Turnquist | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Season 8 of "Gold Rush," the top-rated show on the Discovery Channel, is over, and Oregon's Todd Hoffman has announced he and his crew won't be returning for the next season. The "Gold Rush: Live" special in February included the news -- which Discovery promotions said would change "Gold Rush" forever -- that Hoffman was bowing out.

On March 16, in a "Gold Rush" episode called "American Dreamer," Hoffman, his father Jack, son Hunter, and others looked back at the eight years of ups and downs Hoffman, who lives in Sandy, Oregon, and his crew experienced.

"Gold Rush" began in 2010, and for the Hoffmans, the concept was that a group of Oregon men, hit by financial hard times because of the recession, were taking a bold step and going for gold.

Since then, the members of Hoffman's crew have changed. But Hoffman himself has been a key figure for "Gold Rush." Viewers have cheered him on, as an average guy following his dream, even though he was by no means an expert in gold mining.

Others made fun of Hoffman's habit of making grand predictions, which sometimes resulted in success, and sometimes went up in flames.

But whether viewers loved him or hated him, Hoffman was central to the success of "Gold Rush."

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Before the Hoffman farewell episode on March 16, Discovery aired an episode called "Win Big or Die Trying," which looked back on Season 8, and included interviews with Hoffman, and the other miners featured on "Gold Rush," Parker Schnabel and Tony Beets.

Schnabel recalled how Season 8 began, with Hoffman betting 100 ounces in gold -- worth about $100,000 -- that his crew would find more gold than Schnabel's team. Hoffman also set an ambitious goal, vowing that his crew would mine 5,000 ounces of gold during the season.

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As anyone who watched Season 8 knows, Hoffman fell far short of that 5,000-ounce goal. A trouble-plagued season in Colorado, where cease-and-desist orders from local officials and other setbacks found the Hoffman crew playing catch-up, left the group with about 1,600 ounces of gold and about $50,000 in profit -- and Hoffman had to dip into that to pay Schnabel, who won the bet.

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In the Season 8 retrospective episode, Schnabel revealed that while he found an impressive amount of gold, he did suffer a loss: "Ashley and I broke up."

During Season 7 and Season 8, the Australian Ashley Youle, Schnabel's girlfriend, was occasionally seen on camera, as Schnabel and his team mined in the Klondike.

In "Win Big or Die Trying," Schnabel said he "never made the relationship a priority," and Youle "deserves a lot better than that."

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In the "American Dreamer" episode, Hoffman reflected on how "eight years ago, I had a dream," to mine for gold, even though he, and the men he was bringing along, didn't have experience as professional gold miners.

Despite their difficulties, in the eight seasons of doing "Gold Rush," Hoffman said his crew dug up "almost $10 million in gold," adding, now "I want to chase another dream."

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Edward Gorsuch/Discovery Channel

As the episode traced the Hoffman crew's journey, others weighed in. Freddy Dodge said, "My first impression of Todd as a gold miner is, he wasn't a gold miner."

Hoffman's father, Jack, agreed, saying, "Todd's not the best gold miner."

The episode touched on the disastrous season Hoffman led his crew to Guyana, South America, a decision Hoffman called his biggest mistake.

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But things started looking up in Seasons 5 and 6, where the "knuckleheads trying to figure it out" in the early days, as Hoffman put it, began having success at mining gold. Some crew members, Hoffman said, got $50,000 to $60,000 bonuses.

The good days didn't last, though. In Season 7, Hoffman decided to leave the Klondike behind, and mine for gold in Baker County in Oregon. That turned out to be a bust.

As Dodge said in the "American Dreamer" episode, "When things went bad in Oregon, everybody was hurting."

A clip from the season showed Dave Turin, who had been a key member of the Hoffman crew, saying, "We've lost the team, and without the team, we can't do it."

Hoffman said, "We got bailed out by Freddy," after Dodge told the crew about land in Colorado that promised more gold than what they were finding in Oregon. But it was too little, too late to save the season, Hoffman said.

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Tensions finally boiled over at the end of Season 7, when a fight broke out between Turin and Trey Poulson. Turin, who lives in Gresham, subsequently announced that he was leaving "Gold Rush."

In "American Dreamer," Hoffman looked back at the conflict, and said, "it shook our foundation as a brand of brothers."

In an episode that aired near the end of Season 8, Hoffman said, "Last year, we didn't leave as a team," and that he didn't want that to happen again, adding, "I have not talked with Dave for a year."

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In "American Dreamer," it was said that the Hoffman crew had, over eight seasons, mined almost $10 million worth of gold.

Hoffman then talked about the new dream he wanted to chase. In working on "Gold Rush," he said, he "learned a ton about how to do things in television," and he wanted to now focus on his television production company, ZUM Media.

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Hoffman also said he wants to focus on singing. After releasing performances online, Hoffman said, "I'm actually starting to get some serious offers. Laugh if you want," he said, but Hoffman might be singing on our radio sometime soon.

"Who knows?" he said. "Stranger things have happened. I want to break it big. I want to hit it out of the park."

Dodge said, "Todd is a dreamer. He sets goals that are way too big sometimes. But that's what dreamers do."

Hoffman ended the episode by saying, "If you look at our adventure as a whole, you can see the American dream is still alive," adding, "I don't think I'd change a thing."

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Related: Todd Hoffman makes a bombshell "Gold Rush" announcement

On Feb. 16, 2018, Discovery promoted "Gold Rush: Live," and news that would, the promotions promised, change "Gold Rush" forever. During the episode, Todd Hoffman announced that Season 8 would be his last, and he was leaving the show.

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Dave Turin quits "Gold Rush"

In a special episode that aired at the end of Season 7, Dave Turin talked about the brawl he had with Trey Poulson, and announced that he was leaving "Gold Rush."

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Freddy Dodge, Andy Spinks and Trey Poulson looking in a gold pan, during "Gold Rush" Season 7.

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Tony Beets and Sheamus Christie look at the dredge, in "Gold Rush."

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Trey Poulson and Todd Hoffman in "Gold Rush."

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