Gold Rush Fans Are Suspicious Over Dave's Retirement News In Season 13

Throughout its nearly 13 years on air, Discovery's incredibly popular reality series "Gold Rush" has been accused numerous times of faking drama for the sake of entertainment. This should come as no surprise to most fans of reality television, as the majority of these shows go out of their way to craft specific storylines that will keep the audience invested.

One great example is the Season 1 firing of Jimmy Dorsey, which occurred after Dorsey and fellow miner Greg Remsburg got into a physical altercation on set. Dorsey later told Oregon Gold that the showrunners had scripted the entire ordeal, as well as his painful exit from the series (which ended with the Hoffman crew torching his cabin in celebration). Although the validity of Dorsey's claims has never been confirmed, doubt about the series' honesty has led fans online to question plenty of events throughout the series.

Most recently, fans have begun to question the abrupt retirement of longtime cast member Dave Turin — as many fans simply don't believe he has the money to quit the "Gold Rush" business.

One of the biggest storylines of "Gold Rush" Season 13 thus far has been the surprising retirement of Dave Turin, a staple of the "Gold Rush" franchise who has been around since Season 1 (albeit moving to his own spinoff series after a nasty fight in Season 7). Although Turin has been a crucial part of the franchise throughout these 13 seasons, fans online can't help but wonder how he can afford retirement — considering his recent mining woes.

"So how can Dave afford to retire after spending his life savings each of the last several years to mine a new location that wasn't profitable," wrote u/mudpupper. "The money doesn't add up as usual." "Literally makes no sense," echoed u/Tleec. "Spent multiple seasons looking for the one place they could mine a long time. They find a place, invest in it, work it for one season then say 'Im retiring now.'"

Other users brought up the conflicting reasons for Turin's departure: originally claiming that his investor pulled out, then backtracking and saying he wanted to spend time with his family. During an interview with the Idaho Press, Turin gave a more in-depth explanation for his 'retirement' — saying that he would be "scaling back" his mining because of mental and physical exhaustion from the past few years. Regardless of how or why Dave Turin's retirement came about, it's clear that plenty of fans online are confused by his abrupt decision to leave.