In the pilot episode of Twin Peaks, written by Mark Frost and David Lynch and directed by Lynch, we first meet agent Dale Cooper of the FBI (Kyle Mac
In the pilot episode of Twin Peaks, written by Mark Frost and David Lynch and directed by Lynch, we first meet agent Dale Cooper of the FBI (Kyle MacLachlan) as he’s driving into town. “Diane, 11:30 AM, February 24th,” he says into his tape recorder. “Entering the town of Twin Peaks, five miles south of the Canadian border, twelve miles west of the state line. I’ve never seen so many trees in my life.”
In the 35 years since the series premiered, February 24 has come to be known as Twin Peaks Day, and it’s now the capstone of a three-day fan convocation known as the Real Twin Peaks. The festivities are centered in the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend, Washington, where many key scenes were shot for the pilot, the feature film Fire Walk With Me, and the 2017 Showtime sequel series, Twin Peaks: The Return.
Snoqualmie FallsCourtesy of Mike Hogan.
The North Bend TheatreCourtesy of Mike Hogan.
This year’s edition kicked off with a memorial to David Lynch, who died on January 16. It was held at the Sno-Valley Eagles club on Railroad Avenue in Snoqualmie, just down the road from the Salish Lodge & Spa at the top of Snoqualmie Falls—notable to fans as the Great Northern Hotel where Agent Cooper stayed during his visit.
Inside the memorial to David Lynch at the Sno-Valley Eagles club.Courtesy of Mike Hogan.
Over the past three decades, the franchise’s fandom has ebbed and flowed. They first started coming here in 1992, when New Line hosted a Twin Peaks festival in the summertime to celebrate the release of Fire Walk With Me. Over time, the number of visitors trailed off, only to surge when Twin Peaks moved to Netflix, and again when Showtime premiered The Return. Along the way, some of the fans have become celebrities in their own right—none more so than Josh Eisenstadt, who hosts a notoriously complex annual trivia game (“Currently at Peaks trivia and know no answers,” Harley Peyton, a writer on the show, texted me) and loves nothing more than to lead tour buses to check out landmarks like the Roadhouse, the Packard Mill, Big Ed’s Gas Farm, and the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Office, now occupied by the DirtFish Rally Driving School.
Josh Eisenstadt speaks to a group of fans next to the Pulaski bridge.Courtesy of Mike Hogan.
COMMENTS