The show was named Gold Rush: Alaska in its first season, and featured six men from Sandy, Oregon, a small town 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Portland.

Due to the economic downturn, the men had lost their jobs; they decided on an all-stakes gamble: travel to Porcupine, Alaska, to prospect for gold.

The crew's initial plan to strip mine a site near Porcupine Creek is quickly disrupted in favor of Jack Hoffman's search for an ancient waterfall that he hoped could contain a large cache of gold nuggets.

Halfway through the season, claim owner Earle Foster sends Dakota Fred, an experienced miner, out in an attempt to improve the site's efficiency.

However, with Hoffman having delays and equipment trouble at his site, they decided to merge with Dave Turin's team at Indian River.

Gold Rush: Guyana South America features the Hoffman crew in South America, Parker Schnabel leasing new land at Scribner Creek with mentor Tony Beets in Dawson City, and "Dakota" Fred Hurt and his son Dustin mining at Cahoon Creek, a hard-to-reach, post-glacial area mined only with pickaxes in the late 1800s.

Meanwhile, Tony Beets is disassembling, transporting, and reassembling another vintage dredge, resurrecting a method of placer mining that has not been in common use in Dawson City for half a century.

He encountered permafrost and was unable to locate gold-rich pockets to feed his wash plant Monster Red, which he had purchased for a half a million dollars at the beginning of the season.

Tony Beets had to move his operation out of Eureka and the Indian River area, due to water lease expirations.

Rick Ness quarantines while on the road from Wisconsin to the Yukon, with an extended fuel tank for his pickup, by limiting any contact while roadtripping.

It focused on the mining crews of Parker Schnabel, Tony Beets, Rick Ness and Fred Lewis, who joins forces with the neighboring Clayton Brothers toward the end of the season.

It focused on the mining crews of Parker Schnabel (Alaska and Yukon sites), Tony Beets, Fred Lewis, Clayton Brothers.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck the TV season, the interview shows were affected, these episodes were called The Dirt: Home Edition.

[13] Between the second and third seasons, Todd Hoffman and several crew members traveled to a remote site in Guyana in South America to determine the feasibility of opening up an operation there during the Klondike off-seasons.

Between the third and fourth seasons, Todd Hoffman and several crew members traveled to South America to prospect for gold in Chile, Guyana, and Peru.

In 2019, a ten-episode series followed Schnabel and his crew sailing, flying, hiking and driving through Papua New Guinea in northern Oceania, while attempting to mine at stops along the way.

[20] In 2022, in a 10-episode series that debuted on June 13, Schnabel and his crew investigated placer operations in the West Coast and Otago regions of the South Island of New Zealand, specifically the miner's distinctive "Kiwi Wash Plants".

After visiting the New Zealand mine sites, Parker decided to build his own wash plant with the help of gold recovery engineer and builder Jeff Turnell from British Columbia, Canada.

[29][26] On December 3, 2020, it was announced that a spin-off titled Gold Rush: Freddy Dodge's Mine Rescue would premiere on January 4, 2021, on the Discovery+ video streaming service.

[34] Tony Beets, Rick Ness, Dave Turin, Fred Lewis, and Dustin Hurt start the off-season prospecting, scouting, and preparing for the 2021 season because of high gold prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[36] On September 24, 2021, Discovery announced a standalone series that premiered in February 2022 focusing on Todd Hoffman's return to gold mining.

[60] For 13 consecutive weeks in its second season, Gold Rush continued to hold Friday's top rating in the demographic of men aged 18 to 49.

[61] With Gold Rush leading the way, Discovery wrapped a dominant first quarter in key male demographics, including a stranglehold among the rankings for top unscripted cable programs.

For the December 28, 2015, to March 27, 2016, ratings period, Discovery stood number one among non-sports cable networks in its target demographic of men aged 25 to 54.