Treasure hunters look for hundreds of ounces in lost gold on new APTN series

The country’s newest treasure hunting documentary series will premiere on the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network on May 5.

The series, titled Red River Gold, will have its first episode at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time.

The series, which consists of 13 episodes in its inaugural season, follows treasure hunters seeking gold coins that disappeared in 1870. It is believed the gold was never recovered and The Royal Mint – more than 12 decades later – still considers it lost or stolen since it has never been cashed in.

The coins were reportedly on their way to help fund the military, which was making its way across the county to square off against Louis Riel and his Métis supporters during the Red River Resistance.

It is believed that a soldier who was being followed by Indigenous fighters threw the bag of gold coins along the old Dawson Trail in Manitoba.

The trail is now an abandoned highway that previously connected the eastern parts of the country to the west.

Memphis Pambrun, a Métis musician, fire chief and owner/operator of a satellite/aerial imagery and data company, is among those featured in Red River Gold.

During the search he’s joined by others, including a renowned metal detector expert and a Métis Elder and guide.

“A lot of people think that a couple million dollars is going to be enough to sustain us all as a crew and as a team,” Pambrun said. “I tell people the money would be fabulous. But the journey for me is that it tells more of the story, of the history of the Indigenous communities and how they were a part of the story of Canada coming west.”

Throughout the series Pambrun encounters people who believe they know part of the story of the lost gold. And they are looking to share any information they have.

“That is what brings the experience together,” said Pambrun, a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

Pambrun had previously worked on other projects with Red River Gold director Saxon de Cocq.

“He asked me if I ever knew about some of the history of the Red River area,” Pambrun said. “And yeah, growing up, I was familiar with it. I loved talking about the maps. I loved talking about the experience. But I didn't really get a chance to live within the community.”

A few years ago, de Cocq asked Pambrun if he had heard any stories about the lost gold in Manitoba and if he wanted to go search for it.

“I said ‘Saxon, I’ll be packed in an hour and ready to go’,” Pambrun said.

But it took quite a while for planning of the series to occur.

Pambrun said he originally thought some community members would not be keen to be involved, but “everybody who lived along the Dawson Trail said ‘we want to share this story. This is our history and we love that somebody has finally come in here to tell it’.”

After pouring over maps and strategizing, it was time to commence.

“My job was to make sure that we knew where we were going to start, how we were going to do it, bring all the tools, bring all the equipment, spend the money, fund it and let's get this done,” Pambrun said.

Filming for the series began in 2022. By the following year funding for the project was secured and two-and-a-half months of filming took place.

Episodes of the English-speaking version of the series will be released weekly starting May 5. Episodes of the series in the Michif language are expected to come out this fall.

Pambrun doesn’t want to give away too many details about the series.

“We always find treasures,” he said. “We pull stuff out of the ground all the time. We find them in waterways. We find them under the ground. We're finding little clues that are in rocks throughout some of the areas that we travel because the path that we can travel along the Dawson Trail is only so wide.”

Besides the highly sought-after gold coins, the treasure hunters are also trying to track down a pair of lost cannons.

“If we can find those cannons, we've also found a little bit of history,” Pambrun said.

He is confident the series will be a success.

“People love chasing a bit of a mystery,” he said of audience members. “And they love to see their heroes struggle a little bit."

Red River Gold is filmed in areas that include dangers of ticks, blackflies, horseflies and deerflies.

“We do have unique challenges in our area,” Pambrun said. “So, people like to see that and the fact that there's actually a true story behind this gold rather than just random searching for what might be gold out there. This is an actual trove of 400 ounces of lost gold.”

Though he’s one of the stars of the series, Pambrun said there are moments included that he didn’t know existed.

“I think even I've watched some of my episodes and I'm rooting for me,” he said, adding he wasn’t present for some of the moments filmed and directors added plenty of content with other experts.

“How crazy is that? When I get a chance to see and learn a little bit even more about the history that I was unfamiliar with, I'm rooting for me. It's awesome.”

Local Journalism Initiative Reporters are supported by a financial contribution made by the Government of Canada.