Gold Rush's Fred Lewis Defends The Authenticity Of His House Drama In An Instagram Post

When one's show has the "reality television" label attached, it can cause all sorts of issues for some fans when it comes to the level of authenticity. "Gold Rush" combines the popular reality genre of entertainment and mixes it with a fair amount of hope, precious resources, heavy industrial equipment, unique locations, and colorful personalities. In other words, a recipe for a franchise that has spawned an entire array of different "Gold Rush" spinoffs and plenty of interesting participants like Parker Schnabel, Freddy Dodge, Rick Ness, and Tony Beets, to just name a few of the intrepid explorers and miners.

Fred Lewis is a recent addition to the main "Gold Rush" cast, though according to IMDb, he made his first appearance in the series in 2019 with the spinoff "Gold Rush: Parker's Trail." Though most people, like Schnabel, have grown up surrounded by gold mining, Lewis is actually a former Special Forces medic. As noted by Discovery, Lewis has 14 years of Green Beret experience, so he tends to bring a rather unique perspective into the world of "Gold Rush." Unfortunately, Lewis has way more heart than experience when it comes to hunting for gold, and he hasn't had any sort of overwhelming success on the level of his compatriots. This tends to make him somewhat divisive when it comes to some fans of "Gold Rush," and it seems like there are some particular plot points that they aren't fans of — and Lewis himself has addressed this issue head-on.

The issue at hand involves Fred Lewis's mining operations, though it actually isn't about anything he is mining, but rather what he is saying. Throughout the newer season of "Gold Rush," Lewis often brings up the fact that he has put his house on the line in order to finance his mining operations, and this is one aspect of the show that some fans have a hard time believing. This is probably best represented by a post on Reddit that shows off a series of social media comments involving "Gold Rush" and Lewis which starts off with the "Gold Rush" account thanking the military personnel for their respective service.

The post goes on to highlight an individual complaining that the narrator always brings up Lewis' military service and the fact that his house is on the line. The individual added that they doubt that Lewis actually put his house up based on Lewis' wife visiting the gold mining operation in a fairly recent episode and the fact that she was all smiles and positive vibes. On account of Lewis' wife, this fan believes that their house isn't actually in danger, because if it were, his wife would apparently have been worried.

In response, Lewis replied and admonished the comments doubting the truthfulness behind his claims, and added that he believes that some fans are reading a bit too much into the show. He agreed that some elements of "Gold Rush" are for drama and entertainment, but challenged the individual to do even the slightest modicum of research before arguing. However, this wasn't Lewis' only response. 

Taking to his own personal Instagram, Fred Lewis wrote, "I'm thinking of launching an anti-bullying campaign as it dawned on me....when only .7% of this country has served why should I accept constant bullying for being proud and does not me being silent and allowing people to trash vets because an announcer on the show says we are vets a lot only allow the problem to grow? Fact is no one should bully anyone, I get annoyed that's really it, but some people really take offense to it and it's damaging."

He continued and spoke about how "Gold Rush" and his stories are meant to entertain and inspire people. Lewis then added that people can do better and that he is finally putting his proverbial foot down and trying to make a positive difference. Since Lewis himself has responded to several negative claims against him involving not only his house being in jeopardy but also how much the "Gold Rush" narrator brings up his military service, it seems like Lewis maintains his generally positive outlook, despite the fact that some fans aren't exactly keen on his presence in the show. For what it's worth, Discovery even says that Lewis used his house as leverage to finance his gold mining operations, though again, this could simply be for dramatic effect. Ultimately, it seems like Lewis isn't a fan of the negativity that gets tossed at the show, his military career, or decisions made for dramatic and entertainment purposes, and he is going to start doing something about it.