Wild Bill Cooper vanished into thin air

Over the years, I have met some unique personalities, some of them highly intellectual and others who were woodsman types and always off on an expedition.
My two favorite explorers I have met are Buzz Aldrin, the second man to step on the moon, and Wild Bill Cooper, an explorer with the desire to make a snowmobile trip from Minnesota to Moscow, Russia.
Cooper has been linked to the Virginia Piper kidnapping 50 years ago. He also was linked to a drug-runnning operation from Mexico to the U.S.
Yes, I actually shook the hand of Aldrin, who is the lone survivor of the three-man Apollo 11 crew that landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. I also shook the hand of Cooper, a grisly type of man with a distinguishable black beard.
It was in 1972 that I first met Cooper. It was at a press conference where Cooper and six compatriots told about their dream to make the longest snowmobile trip across country.
I was stunned while seated on the living room couch the other night when I saw a special report by FOX 9's investigative reporter, Tom Lyden. He was remembering the Virginia Piper kidnapping of 50 years ago. Cooper was mentioned as a suspect.
The snowmobile trip had its beginning in Forest Lake, Minn., where I was serving as a young news editor for the Forest Lake Times. I was there when seven explorers, led by Cooper, left on seven Moto-Ski snowmobiles. The snowmobiles were built in Forest Lake.
Cooper actually tried to make the snowmobile trip twice and failed both times.
Following his failed attempt on the first Trans World Expedition, fellow writer Cliff Buchan and I trekked to Willow River where Cooper lived. He also was proprietor of the Squirrel Cage Bar.
Cooper and I became friends mainly because of the publicity we gave him as newspaper staffers in Forest Lake. I also bumped into him at the Forest Lake Airport. He also was a pilot. He did not have a pilot's license.
He was rumored to be the infamous D.B. Cooper, who hijacked a plane over the Northwest in 1971 and parachuted out with $200,000 and disappeared without a trace.
Cooper is believed to be dead, the victim of a drug deal gone wrong. He also is believed to be alive and living in Canada. An Internet account says he was spotted wandering around in Arizona, and he's said to have been buried in Mexico.
He was wanted for failure to appear for sentencing on a drug charge and for smuggling narcotics. He was also wanted for bank robbery.
Filmmaker Mike Scholtz made Cooper the subject of his film, "Wild Bill's Run." Read more about Scholtz's film at www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/2324861-lawless-northland-legend-wild-bi….
This story may never have an ending. Maybe, Bill Cooper is basking on a beach in sunny Florida, or he is waiting to take a trip on Space X to the moon.