Spenser McCleskey

Spenser was born and raised in a small town in rural Southern Oregon. He was first introduced to gold panning at age seven, while visiting a relative in California. After that, Spenser would ask his mom to drive him to the river, or take him to work with her so that he could pan in the creek behind her office. While in middle school, rather than riding the school bus home, Spenser would walk to a local rock & ore shop, owned by William "Bill" Little. An "old rock hound" himself, Bill would spend hours talking to Spenser about the various places he had mined throughout the world, and encouraged Spenser to follow his dreams of mining in Alaska. Shortly after his high school graduation in 2010, Spenser moved to Nome, Alaska. There, he discovered a love for dredging under the Bering Sea. While Spenser owns his own small dredges, he often works for others, honing his skills as a prospector & miner, as well as a welder. Spenser has worked on several vessels which have been featured on Discovery Channel's "Bering Sea Gold", including the Eroica, the Wild Ranger, and the High Noon, which he helped build from the ground up. Sadly, Spenser's mentor, Bill Little, passed away before ever seeing Spenser on TV. He did, however, have a photo of Spenser's first big clean-up (complete with smiley face drawn in the pan of gold) displayed proudly in his rock & ore shop for all to see!