New Forum & News Updates

[Robert99]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

Kermit,

Welcome and here is a question for you.  Do you know of a source for the Columbia River water levels at the Vancouver gage (which is located on the Vancouver side of the river and just a few hundred feet east of the Interstate 5 bridge) for the period November 1, 1971 to October 31, 1972?

Did the Portland or Vancouver newspapers carry that information on a daily basis?

Robert99

[Shutter]

C U Next Tuesday!

Good one 

[georger]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

welcome - any Ariel store news?

[Kermit]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

welcome - any Ariel store news?

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

Kermit,

Welcome and here is a question for you.  Do you know of a source for the Columbia River water levels at the Vancouver gage (which is located on the Vancouver side of the river and just a few hundred feet east of the Interstate 5 bridge) for the period November 1, 1971 to October 31, 1972?

Did the Portland or Vancouver newspapers carry that information on a daily basis?

Robert99

Sorry Robert but I'm not able to help you. 45 years ago makes such information difficult to find.

[MeyerLouie]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

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Welcome Kermit.  Nice to have someone living in Cooper country.  Hope you have fun here. 

MeyerLouie

[Kermit]

I actually live near a small town called Vader, Washington. It's at milepost 59 which means it's 59 miles from the Columbia River. The Ariel cutoff is exit 22 and I haven't driven by there in quite a few months. I moved here about a year ago and it's been a wet and icy winter for sure. Back in the day I spent lots of time fishing at Lake Merwin as I had a neighbor who had a place at Campers Hideaway high above the Lake. We would camp up at Spirit Lake and rent canoes from Harry Truman long before Mt St Helens blew its top. I recall houses floating in the Columbia river during the Vanport flood back in the 40's. Ok, I'm kinda an old fart but I still have a good memory. I find the D B Cooper story fascinating and believe the mystery is solvable. I hope to be able to assist in some way. I will take a drive out to Ariel and see if anything is happening.

[georger]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

welcome - any Ariel store news?

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

Kermit,

Welcome and here is a question for you.  Do you know of a source for the Columbia River water levels at the Vancouver gage (which is located on the Vancouver side of the river and just a few hundred feet east of the Interstate 5 bridge) for the period November 1, 1971 to October 31, 1972?

Did the Portland or Vancouver newspapers carry that information on a daily basis?

Robert99

Sorry Robert but I'm not able to help you. 45 years ago makes such information difficult to find.

What R99 refers to is the USACE Columbia water level gauge data at Portland, that we found for 1973-1980 but could not find for 1970-Jan 1973. The Corps claimed the pre 1973 data had never been digitised, was on paper?, and had been sent to the Univ of Wyoming and was being stored there. Helluva a story but perhaps true? So I contacted UW and several agencies and they had no knowledge of any of this. I went back to the Corps and they sent me an email address and a phone number which I could never get anyone to answer. That is as far as it went. Nobody else seemed interested. That is the issue at stake so far as water level data is concerned ... but its the only river level data that directly includes water levels at Tina Bar.

[Robert99]

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

welcome - any Ariel store news?

Hi everyone ! My first post and I thank Bruce for helping me get aboard. I've spent most of my life in the Portland area but spent 15 years in Las Vegas. I now live in Washington not all that far from where Cooper apparently made his jump. I'm retired and here to assist in any way I can.

Kermit,

Welcome and here is a question for you.  Do you know of a source for the Columbia River water levels at the Vancouver gage (which is located on the Vancouver side of the river and just a few hundred feet east of the Interstate 5 bridge) for the period November 1, 1971 to October 31, 1972?

Did the Portland or Vancouver newspapers carry that information on a daily basis?

Robert99

Sorry Robert but I'm not able to help you. 45 years ago makes such information difficult to find.

What R99 refers to is the USACE Columbia water level gauge data at Portland, that we found for 1973-1980 but could not find for 1970-Jan 1973. The Corps claimed the pre 1973 data had never been digitised, was on paper?, and had been sent to the Univ of Wyoming and was being stored there. Helluva a story but perhaps true? So I contacted UW and several agencies and they had no knowledge of any of this. I went back to the Corps and they sent me an email address and a phone number which I could never get anyone to answer. That is as far as it went. Nobody else seemed interested. That is the issue at stake so far as water level data is concerned ... but its the only river level data that directly includes water levels at Tina Bar.

Georger,

Your attachment is for 01 Jan 73 thru 1980.  There is no information on that chart for 24 Nov 71 to 31 Dec 72.

Actually, Only the information from 24 Nov 71 to 31 Oct 72 is needed.  That would provide several days of overlap with the existing USACE information which would provide a means to verify how the early information was converted from the old vertical datum to the new vertical datum which was introduced about 1983/1984.

[FLYJACK]

Did you guys know about the Blurock Landing water level recording station attached to a navigation light at Frenchman's bar on the Columbia.. found data for Nov 1970, 1971 may be somewhere?

shown here,
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water level for Nov 1970..

[georger]

Did you guys know about the Blurock Landing water level recording station attached to a navigation light at Frenchman's bar on the Columbia.. found data for Nov 1970, 1971 may be somewhere?

shown here,
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water level for Nov 1970..

who has the data - Corps or Geological Survey? assume the old data would be in the old pre 83/84 format?

[Shutter]

Tom Colbert was nice enough to share some files with me....the file has been uploaded to our website "Cooper Vault"

It's the "original John Doe Indictment" it's toward the bottom of the page....

Thanks Tom 

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[Bruce A. Smith]

Ariel Update

I've received a number of emails from folks who don't post here, regarding Ariel, so I thought I'd offer a synopsis.

Bryan Woodruff wrote to me and said that he is not sure if he will have the DB Cooper Days festival this year, either. He is still planning on restoring the Tavern, and leveling the structure seems to be his first priority. He also announced that he has gotten a job and seeks to fund the restoration solely from his own pocket.

Bryan also stated that his mother, Dona, operated the Tavern in the red from 1996 until her passing, all in order to keep the Cooper legacy alive. Cooper Daze was still the Best Party Ever, in my book. Thanks, Dona. My heart still pitter-patters for Christie.....2012..... sigh....

Galen and others inform me that RMB is spreading a story far and wide that I have turned down an offer of $15,000 from some production company that wants to make a Kenny Christiansen docu. NOT TRUE. I never received an offer from ANY production company, so RMB's claims are unverifiable. Regardless, For The Record: I would never turn down any money from any production company in exchange for sharing what I know about DB Cooper. In fact, the opposite is true. I am in constant discussion and negotiations about how to get money from these guys.

Lastly, I would never knowingly enter into a project with RMB in any capacity. He is simply too untrustworthy in my judgment. I say that here because I know some Forum denizens worry about me and how I might be dazzled by the lure of lucre....

[MeyerLouie]

Ariel Update

I've received a number of emails from folks who don't post here, regarding Ariel, so I thought I'd offer a synopsis.

Bryan Woodruff wrote to me and said that he is not sure if he will have the DB Cooper Days festival this year, either. He is still planning on restoring the Tavern, and leveling the structure seems to be his first priority. He also announced that he has gotten a job and seeks to fund the restoration solely from his own pocket.

Bryan also stated that his mother, Dona, operated the Tavern in the red from 1996 until her passing, all in order to keep the Cooper legacy alive. Cooper Daze was still the Best Party Ever, in my book. Thanks, Dona. My heart still pitter-patters for Christie.....2012..... sigh....

Galen and others inform me that RMB is spreading a story far and wide that I have turned down an offer of $15,000 from some production company that wants to make a Kenny Christiansen docu. NOT TRUE. I never received an offer from ANY production company, so RMB's claims are unverifiable. Regardless, For The Record: I would never turn down any money from any production company in exchange for sharing what I know about DB Cooper. In fact, the opposite is true. I am in constant discussion and negotiations about how to get money from these guys.

Lastly, I would never knowingly enter into a project with RMB in any capacity. He is simply too untrustworthy in my judgment. I say that here because I know some Forum denizens worry about me and how I might be dazzled by the lure of lucre....

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Hi Bruce,

I can vouch for most of the statements you made above.  I too know about the alleged $15K opportunity that RMB said you totally ignored/turned down.  It just didn't set right with me, id just didn't sound right. I can't see you ever turning down that kind of dough.

I wish Bryan would let folks help out financially and otherwise.  I am more than willing to go to Ariel and help out with all the work that really needs to be done. 

Cooper Daze was a great party, so much fun, I totally agree.  Great time, great memories.

I assume "leveling" means to make level, not to knock down.

Blevins is pretty worked up right now.  He's been pretty angry about some things.

Meyer 

[Shutter]

I believe you mean this comment..

Did you know Bruce Smith was being offered $15,000 and a credit in the upcoming film on Kenny Christiansen? They just wanted him to provide accuracy regarding small details of the hijacking itself.

Wow, 15k for small details lol....Robert must be getting millions 

[Shutter]

Ariel has the issue of customers...if Bryan can get things done through others tossing in the cash to get him started, and no Robert, we don't believe your story either...it's possible Bryan could get the store running, but the issue of income seems to be the problem. bars are tough to run (money wise) I was a bar manager/tender back in the late 80's, early 90's. you gotta sling a lot of drinks on a daily basis to stay afloat. we closed the bar for a couple months to renovate and added a kitchen, but it just didn't go as planned. the kitchen was too much to run for the amount of food going out...the worse thing is running tabs...these can get out of control quick. you need someone to watch the barmaids, they tend to give a lot of drinks out for tips, and return visits, but it causes loss of revenue. bands suck up money as well...Bryan has a tough road ahead of him...

The bar changed hands 3 times while I was there..Crown lounge...Gumtree Billy's...Prestige bar....this was less than 8 years time...