Investigative insert, Portland, re Columbia River dredging near Willow Bar and money find site
Document date 13 February 1980
Also filed at: Part 96 pp. 300–301
Copies may differ in what was redacted.
Also filed separately as sections:
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Id: Cooper-Part-43:374-375
Subject: Cooper Files: Cooper-Part-43:374-375 Document: Investigative insert, Portland, re Columbia River dredging near Willow Bar and money find site Id: Cooper-Part-43:374-375 Page: https://cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-43%3A374-375 What is wrong (title, date, type, which pages belong together, copies)? What does the scan show?
A person reads every report. Corrections are made by hand, to the data — titles, dates, names, which pages belong together — never to the scans, and they can take a while to appear.
FBI 164-81, Vault Part 43 pp. 374–375 (DB Cooper-17609–17610), Report, dated 13 Feb 1980 — cooper.theunsolved.net/documents/Cooper-Part-43%3A374-375
SE-164-81 PD 164-41 SLH:pkg 1
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SUBS: E, J, M
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The following investigation was conducted by SAs [REDACTED] on February 13, 1980:
AT PORTLAND, OREGON
[REDACTED] Waterways Maintenance Branch, Navigation Division, U.S. Army Engineer District, 319 S.W. Pine, telephone [REDACTED] was contacted regarding dredging operations on the Columbia River since November 24, 1971. The purpose of obtaining this information was to determine if it was possible that the bait money located on the beach property on the [REDACTED] Vancouver, Washington, on February 10, 1980, could have been placed there through dredging operations on the Columbia River.
[REDACTED] after a review of his records, advised that the only dredging operation between November 24, 1971, and the present in the vicinity of the [REDACTED] was during August 6 through September 18, 1974.
Material dredged from the river channel in the Columbia River was placed in several locations on or near the [REDACTED] as well as one location across the river on the Oregon side.
The dredge material deposited at the site where the money was located came from the north half of the ship channel, which is 300 feet wide, between river mile 96 plus 38 feet and river mile 97 plus 17 feet. This material was deposited on the beach area of the [REDACTED] between August 19 through the 25th, 1974, and consisted of 91,100 cubic yards of fill.
The channel is maintained at 40 feet in depth and all the material above 40 feet is dredged out. The dredge "Washington" of the General Construction Company did the dredging on this project. It had a 24 inch pipe with wiper bar inside the pipe. The wiper bar keeps large objects such as rocks from passing through the pipe. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] stated it would be possible for a 16x16x4 inch pack- age to get through the pipe; however, it is likely that a package that size or a human body or parts thereof would [cut off]
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SEARCHED......INDEXED.... SERIALIZED....FILED....[illegible] MAR 11 1980
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DB Cooper-17609
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[illegible] 164-81-[illegible]
SE 164-81 PD 164-41 SLH:pkg 2
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be broken into pieces by the auger then passed through the pipe and deposited on the beach. The material deposited on the beach was spread with tractors probably over a area of 50 yards in each direction. Because of the flow of the Columbia River, sand deposited on the bank by the dredge is washed away. Additionally, an amount of dredge material deposited on the beach slides back into the river. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] added that the dredge works 24 hours a day and any objects such as money or bones would go unnoticed if deposit- ed on the shore during the night.
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[REDACTED] provided six aerial photographs of the Columbia River which show the area where the 1974 dredge material was deposited on the [REDACTED] The September 6, 1974, photographs show the deposit left after the dredging and is marked to indicate where the money was located. The August 9, 1970, photographs show the area before the dredging, and the September 29, 1979, photographs show the area as it appears at present.
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[REDACTED] also provided a chart titled Columbia River Willow Bar, dated December 4, 1979, which has been marked to show the location of the money, dredge material, and area of the channel that was dredged.
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DB Cooper-17610