(mount form), The Oregonian: 'Sasquatch Outlasts D.B. Cooper Legend'

Sasquatch Outlasts D.B. Cooper Lege[nd]

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By JACK PEMENT Journal Staff Writer ARIEL, Wash. —The leg- endary Sasquatch, phantom creature of the rugged for- ests rising around Lake Mer- win, is far outlasting D. B. Cooper as the object of search and conversation among both residents and visitors here. "He's gone," Germaine Tricola, operator of the gen- eral store at this vacation spot, said flatly of the sky- jacker. But of Sasquatch, or the fabled Hairy Ape of these parts, Mrs. Tricola said, "Well, naturally he's still around. Why would he leave?" PATRONS of her store and tavern don't even speak much of D. B. Cooper any- more, except when someone pulls out a crisp $20 bill. Then there usually is some idle kidding, but it doesn't endure long. As a matter of fact, Mrs. Tricola wouldn't know one of Cooper's $20 bills if she saw one. Despite the proximity of her business establishment to the center of search activ- ity for Cooper in the past year, no law enforcement agency has ever provided her with a list of the marked money Cooper took with him when he leaped from a Northwest Airlines 727 Nov. 24, 1971.

FOR SOME weeks after the episode strangers from all parts of the Northwest, and a few from even farther points, stopped in to chat with Mrs. Tricola about Cooper. They obviously were searching for him, or the money, but many were ill- equipped for venturing into the wilds of this Southwest Washington resort area.

Mrs. Tricola's beer, busi- ness picked up, especially when the Army conducted its intense air and ground search for Cooper last spring, "but I didn't get rich on it."

And now, about the only person she knows of who [guess: re-]

mains intent on finding Cooper, or the money, is a retired Portland man who appears at her store every few days or so to buy some candy bars and beef jerky.

"HE SAYS he is getting closer all the time," said Mrs. Tricola.

[guess: Mrs. Tricola's] personal theory is that Cooper "sur- vived and left."

At the Ariel Post Office, [guess: a] clerk commented, "People have forgotten all about him."

At Jack's Sporting Goods, a few miles up State High- way 503, a clerk echoed, "It's forgotten."

Eighty-year-old Harry L. Reese, who operates Reese's Store beside Speelyai Creek at Yale, remarked, "a lot more damn fools are looking for Big Foot (another name for the forest creature) than are looking for that Cooper idiot."

REESE considers Cooper an idiot because the skyjack- er had "no chance of survi[val]."

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

_1_ THE OREGONIAN [guess: sec.] PORTLAND, OREGON

Date: 11 - 24 - 72 Edition: —— Author: —— Editor: —— Title: ——

Character: or Classification: Submitting Office

☐ Being Investigated

164-4/ · [guess: Ser.] SEARCHED ___ SERIALIZED ___ [guess: FILED]

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DB Cooper-22968

GERMAINE TRICOLA ... more interested in Sasquatch [illegible] ... [illegible]

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[guess: Ing] it, indeed, he did para- chute into this region as be- lieved. Reese can speak with some authority. He is a member of the Lewis River Search and Rescue Team and helped organize it. He knows the country like the back of his hand and holds "a most healthy respect for it." His store serves as a registration center for those planning hikes into the re- mote area, and even now, pasted on a foodcase glass, is a bulletin listing the facts about 20-year old Steven A. Cox of Vancouver, Wash., who registered at the store with Reese in September and then vanished. "I tried to discourage the [guess: boy] from going in there all [guess: alone]," Reese said, "but he not to be dissuaded." COULD take years [illegible] [guess: hunters], even with conc [guess: erted] effort, to find the [guess: remains] of a lost hiker in [illegible] [guess: region], Reese believes, [illegible] includes D. B. Coop[er]

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HARRY L. REESE ... says Cooper an idiot

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DB Cooper-22969