Message posted by JB737 on September 13, 2007 at 19:28:28 PST:

Unfortunately I neither saw them adding to or removing from the pile, nor even climbing on it. Just some pics with them heading toward it, (moving/sitting?) in front of it, and gone from it.

So the Saturday activity I discovered doesn't help or hurt any particular theory about the pile. It just shows that at least a couple of earthmoving equipment operators were working early on a weekend morning, not just during normal weekday Janet commuting hours.

I estimate its volume at around 80 acre-feet, or 1/8 of a million cubic yards. That is a lot of earth to lug uphill and form into a precise shape close to a hangar, ramp, and runway where it would normally be seen as a hindrance or danger... so I doubt that it is just to stockpile dirt for later use.

Concensus opinion, which I agree with, is that one purpose of the pile is to block the view of the hangar from Tikaboo and neighboring peaks. The top of the pile extends equal distances beyond each end of the hangar as viewed from Tikaboo, within about 25 feet (4% of the pile length).

The top is about 25ft wide (depth as viewed from Tikaboo) rather than a knife edge, so they could easily do more work on top: for instance set poles in the top to raise screens or camo higher up.

If they already planned to raise it higher sometime, they may have already buried pilings, foundations or heavily filled and interlocked intermodal cargo containers, to make it extendable upwards quickly and cheaply in the future.

JB737

In Reply to: Re: Activity in front of dirt pile on Saturday 6/30 posted by Dave Bethke on September 13, 2007 at 8:33:18 PST:

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