INTERVIEW: Orange County family heads to Alaska gold mines in ‘Alaska Gold Diggers’

From the warm, sun-licked beaches of Newport Beach, Calif., to the frigid cold of Nome, Alaska, the Bartholomae family is like a salmon fish out of water in the northern reaches of the United States. On the new Animal Planet series Alaska Gold Diggers, the five women of the family head to Alaska to reclaim their family’s gold mine, and the adventures they find are incredibly difficult and somewhat life-affirming.

Tori is the youngest daughter in the Bartholomae family, and she recently told Hollywood Soapbox that she’s hooked on the mining business.

“Well, we’ve been gold mining for almost 100 years in my family,” she said recently during a phone interview. “[My mom] got handed the task of running two gold mines, so for a couple of years there my mom and I have been trying to run it ourselves. So we decided to involve the rest of the sisters and kind of pool all of our talents and kind of attack it all together.”

When the reality-TV cameras were on the scene, they tended to melt into the background, according to Tori. There are too many other concerns, including the subzero temperatures and the grueling tribulations of mining for gold.

“The task at hand is looking for gold. It’s so encompassing and overwhelming that you don’t really pay much attention to the cameras. … So, you know, it’s kind of fun having the cameras. It was cool. We stayed really close with our crew and everything. You know we’re out in the middle of nowhere, hundreds of miles from anything in a 100-year old mine camp. So it was fun.”

Although Tori eventually grew to love the life of a miner, the first few times in the Alaskan wilderness were trying. She said the family was more used to sun, sand, flip flops and bikinis. Now she’s knowledgable of foul-weather gear and muck boots. “It’s a whole different ball game, and we were definitely challenged by the weather,” she said. “We’re a** kickers, so we were ready for the challenge. The part that was the hardest was the cold. It was definitely a transition, but once you get into the mode … once we set our mind to something, we just kind of wanted to immerse ourselves in it. And then it was like, watch out people.”

Some of the locals in Nome were not exactly open to the idea of a group of California women traipsing into town with cameras. Tori said there were a few questions that abounded: What in God’s name is going on right now? Who are these ladies? After the initial shock, the local population opened its arms for the Bartholomae crew.

“They were kind and welcoming to my grandfather, you know, 100 years ago, and they were so kind to us. You know the crusty old miners, they were a little bit hard to break in.”

One thing that helped the assimilation was hanging out at the Breakers Bar where the women won the locals over. Still, Tori said she doesn’t think the miners ever grew used to the cameras. “They’re miners,” she said. “They don’t want to be on camera. That’s not their gig.”

Besides grower closer to the folks in Nome, Tori grew closer to her sisters as well.

“I absolutely treasure every moment that I got to have with my sisters. It’s taken me almost a year. I call it Post-Traumatic Nome Syndrome. It was really hard. We were pushed to our absolute breaking points. The weather. We brawled. We laughed. We cried. I say it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times. I feel so lucky and blessed to be able to have made it through that with my sisters. … I’m just glad I know them. You know? Some people don’t even get to know their family, but I got the opportunity to get to know the good, the bad and the ugly. It definitely reared its head in all different aspects. Can you imagine five women in a 400-square-foot, 100-year-old cabin with no running water? I mean it was bad.”

In the end, Tori said that Nome changed her entire family, and they were not expecting such an experience. The majestic beauty of the Alaskan landscape, where moose graze and the fear of grizzly bears is always present, the family became “grounded” in their new lives.

“It was an opportunity to tap in to be a real old miner broad, and it felt good. And it changed us forever. We’ll never be able to go back to, you know, the way we were. It was a hard transition when I got back this summer after being there for another seven weeks. It was, you know, it was kind of like all right that wine and cheese party was fun but when are we going to blow some s*** up, and like, can we go shoot some guns, and what are we going to do this weekend? Get on our four-wheelers and get some mud on the tires? I don’t know. It kind of like brought out the bada** in all of us.”

Tori’s mother inherited the gold mines in Alaska after tragedy struck the family. She said her grandfather, William Bartholomae, who was a pioneer in the gold rush, was murdered many years ago in his beach home in Newport Beach. The death is still on Tori’s mind.

“It’s a legacy that we’re trying to kind of overcome, the murder, and instead of having such a sad end to it, you know, my sisters and I really wanted to rally around my mom so that she can live through the rest of her life with just happiness and joy and making some really positive about, you know, his loss,” she said. “His blood runs through my veins. I feel him every day, and I feel him so much when I’m there. And I know he’s so proud of us.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• Alaska Gold Diggers airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. on Animal Planet.