'A party for D.B. Cooper' (The Columbian) with Ariel event photos

(Mount Clipping in Space Below)

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A party for D.B. Cooper

By BOB BURNETT Columbian Staff Writer

ARIEL, Wash. — They held a big party here Saturday, but the guest of honor never showed up.

Or at least if he did, he was incognito. Not that anybody really expected the famous skyjacker to attend. Most authorities think he's dead, that he died in his hijacking attempt.

Dead or alive, the people of this tiny community on the shore of the North Fork of the Lewis River about 10 miles east of Woodland Saturday enlivened the legend of history's first parachute skyjacker, D.B. Cooper.

About 200 persons gathered here from as far away as Southern California to help the town Cooper put on the map commemorate the fifth anniversary of the day Cooper hijacked an air- plane and disappeared into thin air with $200,000 cash.

Germaine Tricola, who, with her husband, Vince, owns the Ariel General Store, and Dave Butterfield, who has a summer home nearby, schemed up the "Cooper Caper," mainly as an excuse to hold a party.

"Why not?" asked Mrs. Tricola. "After five years of everybody looking around and everything, why not have a party for Cooper?

"Sure he's alive," she said. "I just have a gut feeling. He might be walking around in here right now. How would you know?"

"He's still alive without a doubt. That's what I think," added Vince Tricola.

He said people started arriving about 11 a.m. Carloads of curious, questioning people. The locals were eager to talk as long as the visitors were willing to listen. Somehow the tales got taller in the retelling.

Butterfield served up hefty portions of thick buffalo stew while Mrs. Tricola poured the [guess: brew]. brew.

An effigy of Cooper hung loosely from a parachute draped over the roof of the store. A Portland air-charter service provided seaplane rides at $8 a head "to search for Cooper." "D.B.

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(Indicate page, name of newspaper, city and state.)

Page 6 THE COLUMBIAN VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON

Date: 11-28-76 Edition: Author: Editor: Jack R.C. [guess: Apbell] Title:

Character: or Classification: b6 Submitting Office: b7C

☐ Being Investigated

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Cooper Fan Club" T-shirts were sold at the. is believed to have jumped. She embers see- counter, along with "The Skyjacker's Guide" ing a "strange-looking" man or ..ewis River and "D.B. (King of the Midnight Blue)," two Road with a package under his .as. "He was paperback offshoots of the Cooper legend. walking in an awful hurry and he looked like he Television stations and newspapers from didn't want a ride from anybody," Babitzke Seattle to Portland were represented. A crew said. from Hollywood filmed a segment for a new The FBI apparently discounted the possibility series about missing persons, entitled "In that the man was Cooper, he said. Search Of. . . ." "But I think it was Cooper. I really think he Posters decorated the walls: "Cooper, Where made it out." Are You?" "Will the Real D.B. Cooper Please Others agree: "I wouldn't rule it out," said Step Forward." "Free Cooper Kittens." Elise Henderson of Portland. "There's always a Posted on a tree to which the Tricola's goat, chance," added Hope Hazen of Amboy. Fred, was tied: "Cooper's Reincarnation?" "I don't think he was even on the plane," said Guitarist Richard Purdy of Woodland sang Midge Frasier of Amboy. "I think he got off with "Where Are You, D.B. Cooper" and an original the money before it ever took off." song, "Ode to D.B. Cooper." A big hit was a Ray Wallace of Toledo, Wash., said he thinks Longview, Wash., man, D.B. (Donald Bob) "Bigfoot took D.B. Cooper and the money to his Cooper, who helped to maintain the festive cave. There ain't no foolin' about it." mood. And it got deeper as the afternoon wore into Cooper is the name used by a man who hi- evening. jacked a Northwest Airlines 727 jetliner in One area resident told how he heard the door Portland on Nov. 24, 1971. The plane flew to of the jetliner slamming shut after Cooper Seattle, where Cooper was given four jumped. Another displayed a wad of $20 bills he parachutes and $200,000 cash. He let the pas- said he couldn't spend because they were sengers off, then ordered the plane to fly to marked. Reno, Nev. To cap the celebration, Tricola, having just Authorities put tiny Ariel -- population about answered the phone, looked stone-faced toward 400 -- on the map by theorizing that Cooper the crowded store and said he had just been jumped out around there or nearby Lake called by President-elect Jimmy Carter. Merwin. The area was searched thoroughly by There appeared to be almost as many federal, state and local police, and by scores of believers as skeptics. hunters and others looking for the $200,000. But "There isn't enough of this kind of fun," said nothing was ever found. Joe Laherty of Lynnwood. "You gotta break the Last week, the FBI searched the area again monotony somehow and this is the way to do it." after a pair of pants was discovered hanging in a "It's something that probably will never hap- tree. Nothing else was found. pen again," said Mrs. Frasier. "If the guy never Cooper was indicted for air piracy by a federal shows up, he'll still have made history here grand jury in Portland last Wednesday, just today." hours before the five-year statute of limitations Asked if the "Cooper Caper" party would would have run out. become an annual event, Mrs. Tricola said: Cooper used the name "Dan" when he bought "I don't know. Maybe. We'll see what the his ticket. The initials "D.B." evolved during weather is like. news coverage of the skyjacking. "If it's nice, well, we'll find some excuse to Harold Babitzke's daughter, Jane, was driving have another party." to Babitzke's Ariel cabin about the time Cooper

Guitarist Richard Purdy of Woodland provided entertainment.

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Mood was festive at Ariel General Store as people gathered from all around to commemorate Dan Cooper's skyjacking.

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The Hamm's beer bear at the Ariel General Store has been redecorated in honor the man who put the tiny town on the map.

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