On Feb. 10, 1980, 8-year-old Brian Ingram and his family were picnicking by the Columbia River near Vancouver, Wash., when Brian found a clue to a real-life mystery story that had been written shortly after he was born. While clearing a spot for a camp fire, "I got down to use my hand and arm to scoop the sand clear," recalls Brian, now 15. "I hit this sort of lump and dug it out. I wasn't excited at all at first, then I brushed the sand off, and it was money!"

The soggy, semisolidified packet of 299 identifiable $20 bills turned out to be the only tangible evidence ever recovered from the 1971 hijacking and ransoming of a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 by an unidentified man who came to be known as D.B. Cooper. With $200,000 in $20s, Cooper had parachuted out of the back of the plane at night over heavily wooded country somewhere in southwestern Washington and was never seen again.

There was a pretty good episode #2 on the Travel Channel earlier in the month.  I think it was called America Declassified.  A follow-up to the first episode.  It discussed some scientific studies offered up by Galen Cook and his team of scientists about how the money ended up at Tina's bar and why it was in the condition that it was found.  Very interesting.

sadly I missed it. perhaps it can be found online? I'll look around and see if I can find it and post the link.

Shutter, I watched it online last night through my Comcast account. Don't know who your provider is, but if its Comcast you should be good to go. 

It's interesting, but I don't buy the plant theory.

In the show they revealed money that they had buried at Tena Bar several months earlier. When recovered, it wasn't in nearly as bad of shape as the Cooper money was. It was actually in good shape. The suggestion was made that Cooper trimmed the money with scissors and buried it.

The problem is, they buried good money. The Cooper money, by the time it arrived at Tena Bar, was probably in very poor condition. I just was not real impressed with that experiment.

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Shutter, I watched it online last night through my Comcast account. Don't know who your provider is, but if its Comcast you should be good to go. 

It's interesting, but I don't buy the plant theory.

In the show they revealed money that they had buried at Tena Bar several months earlier. When recovered, it wasn't in nearly as bad of shape as the Cooper money was. It was actually in good shape. The suggestion was made that Cooper trimmed the money with scissors and buried it.

The problem is, they buried good money. The Cooper money, by the time it arrived at Tena Bar, was probably in very poor condition. I just was not real impressed with that experiment.

Personally, I believe the money could have been in the bag for an extended amount of time prior to being found on the beach.

I tend to agree - something protected the found bundles in another location, prior to the bundles being found at Tina Bar. The Ingram bundles did not just sit on the surface at T-Bar between 11-24-71 and Feb of 1980. They were protected by some circumstance and are probably a surviving remnant.

The full facts of the excavation and the life of the money are not available (to us). I guess we just wait for Tom Kaye or Geoffrey Gray or somebody in an official position, to tell us. Maybe the price of knowing will be $49.99 (on sale) ?   
   

The papaer bag?   Maybe the some packets were put in the paper bag.  A regular paper bag would have completely disintegrated in the sandbar.  But how about Dr. Palmer's assessment?
He says the money was not at "that" location for very long.

I read it as Palmer fudging. At first he says 9 months, then backs up to 'no more than two years'.
The Ingram money apparently found no more than 1-4" below the top sand. Then Himmelsbach comes along and writes in his book: "fragments at four feet'! I think Palmer sensed there were going to be questions right from the start. He basically justifies his reading of the Tina Bar strata by saying (paraphrased): 'Ive been doing these kinds of studies for years, and reading shoreline
strata for years ... so ... who are you to question me!' It's not exactly reassuring and no lab work was done or presented to back anything up. But, in the end maybe Palmer was right.

Attached is my graphic of Palmer's strata classification at Tina Bar.

Tom Kaye believes that Palmer got the strata wrong. Tom, if I understand him, thinks that
Palmer's "clay lump dredge layer" was in fact part of the channel bottom clay layer curving up and
underlying the whole shoreline - a lower part of the 'old' river channel. Palmer's cross bedded
reworked coarse & medium sand, Tom would assign as a remaining remnant of the dredging
spoils deposited on Tina Bar in 1974, with Palmer's [/i]"upper active reworked sand"[/i] on top
of that.

Tom believes that erosion had wasted the whole upper layers of Tina Bar away by 1980 including
a good share of the dredging spoils deposited in 1974. For all practical purposes therefore, if I
understand Tom correctly, Tom believes that the Ingram money was found on the boundary
between the original 1971 shoreline, covered over by a mix of remaining dredge sediment and
newer sand Palmer's calls "the upper active reworked sand - light color.

Core samples and lab tests would have settled this issue in 1980.

Very likely the last chapter on this issue has not been written.


 


     

Georger, go take a look at the photos of the Tina Bar twenties pictured in Richard Tosaw's 84 book.  There is something very peculiar about their shape.  When you're not in a pissed-off mood, e-mail me and I'll tell you about them.
snoop.

Post a few pics - or just tell us about them?   

Shutter, can you put some background info on the money find in the opening post?  Who, when, where (maybe a link to a map) money was found.  I know all of you all know this.... but I'm thinking it would be good if any people new to the case wander onto the board.  Thanks.

Sure, I was also thinking about having a section with just photo's. something to retrieve when needed? I'll post something soon.

Thanks


Look at the top of the posts now Buckwheat. that should be a good start. Georger also provided some info.

Thanks G, has anyone alerted Tom of this site?