I have taken a couple of trips up the Washougal River and Little Washougal River drainage. My very first impression was "no way." The River was so slow moving -- getting a 20-pound bag of money to float down the Washougal undetected would be a stretch, unless it was high water runoff and fast flowing around the time of the jump. The Washougal was much like a creek in many, many places -- the water was shallow and slow-moving. I'm not expecting big runoff in November/December, it would more likely be in the Spring, where mountain ice packs are melting and the river runoff would be much greater. Sorry Jerry Thomas, I am not a fan of the Washougal River theory.
MeyerLouie
Isnt it too violent when it does flood?
It's hard to tell which came first the Washougal theory or the claim they were east of V23. I will look for docs that will answer that question. In 1980 the money find joined the two forever...
I did some digging around about the Washougal River. I saw a video of the Washougal River on 12/7/2015, the river was high, nearly flooding, it almost came up to the Washougal River Bridge. Also, a local reported that the Washougal River can get high and wild if there's been lots of rain.
The Columbia River flooded in 1996, crested at 27.2 feet, 11 feet above flood level. There was the Christmas Day flood, 12/25/1964 where the Columbia River crested at 27.7 feet. The all time high for the Columbia River was 6/13/1948 where the River crested at 31 feet. And there was the Great Flood of 1894, where downtown Vancouver was flooded. The Columbia River flooded in 1970, 1972, and 1974, with high crests on 1/24/70, 6/12/72, and 6/22/1974. No flooding of the Columbia River was reported around November/December of 1971
With or without actual Columbia River flooding, the Washougal could have still raged if there was unusual heavy rainfall on or a little after 11/24/1971. If the river was raging, then it would be possible for a 20-pound bag to float a long ways downstream, maybe even to the Columbia River. But if we can pinpoint actual rainfall data and Washougal River water levels on or a little after 11/24/71 to be normal or minimal -- nothing out of the ordinary -- then the Washougal River theory might be a little harder to explain. As I stated earlier, I observed the Washougal River running pretty slow and shallow in several places. IMO, under these kinds of normal runoff conditions, I don't think it would be possible for a 20-pound bag of money to float undetected for very long, or even float at all, since there are so many shallow, creek-like, slow-moving places along the river.
Finding rainfall amounts and Washougal River levels in late November 1971 would be helpful. Anybody have that data handy by any chance? I know Georger and R99 and several others have looked at National Weather Service data. Washougal River crest levels in November 1971 should be available somewhere....
Meyer