[MHGinTN]

Aw shucks, I was enjoying the fantasy. Oh well. On a heavier note, Cooper probably injured himself in his jump and was eaten by wild things. Some of the money in $20’s was found in the woods where he would have landed, by some kids IIRC. His parachute was also found, I think.

[Scoutmaster]

The only money ever recovered was found by an eight-year old boy in 1980. He found three packets of matted and badly disintegrated bills, still bound by rubber bands, buried in the sandy banks of the Columbia River when he was raking up an area for a campfire.

Based on the matting and the rounded nature of the disintegration, it was determined that they had washed down the river a considerable distance before reaching their resting place.

There's no report of any of the Cooper money being found by a lake or anywhere else. Just the Columbia river find.

In 2007, the FBI disclosed that one of the two parachutes given Cooper was a dummy chute with an inoperable ripcord and that Cooper had jumped with that chute, cannibalizing the working chute (probably to wrap the money to his body).

So, yeah, Cooper cork-screwed into the ground at terminal velocity, if the FBI's information is true.