In the Pilot Episode of Twin Peaks, there are two short scenes of James Hurley sitting on a mountain overlook holding a necklace with half a gold heart.   In reality, this scene was shot outside of Snoqualmie, Washington at a spot now known as Snoqualmie Point Park.
James’ scene appears in the for the then titled “Northwest Passage.”
EXT. MOUNTAIN OVERLOOK – DAY
A motorcycle is parked on a high crest, overlooking a wooded valley and the town in the deep background. We hear the sound of SIRENS wailing in the distance.
James Hurley sits on a rock. His eyes red, his face torn with grief. He holds a small envelope in one hand. His other hand holds something protectively in a closed fist.
CUT TO:
HIS HAND
As it opens and we see he’s holding a gold necklace in the shape of half of a heart. He rubs it lovingly and closes his hand again.
Located at 37580 Winery Road outside of Snoqualmie, Snoqualmie Point Park offers, “one of the region’s grandest views of the Snoqualmie Valley, Mount Si, and the Cascade Mountain Range all the way to Mount Baker. It is an excellent venue for outdoor concerts, weddings, company picnics, and family reunions.”
HISTORY OF SNOQUALMIE POINT PARK
Before it was a park, this location was home to the Snoqualmie Winery which ceased operations in 1991. Jim and Dari Aker formed the Snoqualmie Point partnership and purchased the winery company’s lease. This lease included the old winery building that the couple used as a wedding and banquet hall venue for about two years. Sadly, on February 13, 1999, Mr. Aker discovered the winery building was on fire while showing a couple the venue.
According to a Seattle Times article from February 17, 1999, “Firefighters from Snoqualmie, Fall City, and Eastside Fire and Rescue doused the blaze, but not before it destroyed the two-story building. The loss was about $175,000 to the building and $75,000 to the contents.”
In the late 1990s, the location almost became an eight building office complex complete. Â With the help of Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust and a partnership of government officials, agencies, The Trust for Public Land and citizens, development plans were stoped and the area was designated as a City of Snoqualmie park. According to MTSGreenway.org, the land was purchased in 1999 using funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
InTwinPeaks.com visited the site in 2007 when construction was underway for the new park. It was officially opened on October 27, 2007 at 9:30 a.m.
Yogy Namara posted an image on Google Maps from October 2018 that provides a good look at the park today. In the distance is Mt. Si while served as the “Twin Peaks” in the series and film.
Let’s take a closer look at where the two scenes were shot in this specific location.
PILOT EPISODE – PART 1
The first time we visit the mountain overlook is when the television screen at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department fades to the front of James Hurley’s 1978 Harley-Davidson FLH-80 (1340cc) Electra Glide.
The camera pans from the headlight to a pensive James holding the necklace.
I created this photo of James and his bike that combines the panning shot into a large image.
The first scene ends with a wide shot of James and his motorcycle parked on the mountain overlook. We can again seen Mt. Si as the closest mountain along the left side of the image.
InTwinPeaks.com visited this location in the late 2000s and captured this photo of the same spot (the trick to identifying it is using the mountains as reference).
When I attended the 1996 Twin Peaks Fan Fest, I took only one photograph (what the hell?!) at this location. I was further back than the InTwinPeaks.com image, but the mountains are close match to the series. Many activities from the 1992 Twin Peaks Fan Fest were held at this location.
PILOT EPISODE – PART 2
Later in the Pilot, we return to the mountain overlook with a wide angle panning shot that lands on James sitting next to his bike. The ending shot appears similar to the earlier wide angle shot.
Here is a collage image that combined frames from this scene. It offers a fantastic look at the Snoqualmie region, with the town of Snoqualmie seen on the far left side of the photo.
Using Google Earth’s street view, I attempted to find the spot where this scene was shot.
Another photo posted by Yogy Namara on Google Maps gives us a better look at the spot. In 1989, all of this area would have been covered with trees and a gravel / dirt path.
After the wide angle shot, the camera cuts to a close up of James looking down at the necklace. Most likely, these scenes were all shot at the same time as the wide angle shots.
I wasn’t able to find a reverse angle shot of James from the actual park, yet I compared the wide angle and close up shots from the series. The red arrows in the image above show one stone that I believe matches in both scenes based on the angle of the camera.
While we don’t revisit this specific location in the rest of the series, Snoqualmie Point Park was also used as the spot where Donna Hayward and Laura Palmer recorded their picnic. That’s another story coming soon.
Meanwhile, credit goes to InTwinPeaks.com who first posted about this film location on the now defunct site. Below is a tribute image to the original posting (click the image to enlarge).
