Kicking of the New Year with a return to the Kiana Lodge in Poulsbo, Washington. This location served as the film location of both the Packard family’s Blue Pine Lodge and The Great Northern Hotel as seen in the Twin Peaks Pilot. Today, I’m focusing on the kitchen which is seen briefly toward the beginning of the episode.
WHERE IS THE BLUE PINE LODGE KITCHEN LOCATED IN TWIN PEAKS?
Located at 14976 Sandy Hook Rd NE in Poulsbo, Kiana Lodge is a private meeting and wedding facility that originally opened in 1937. The Suquamish Tribe purchased the lodge from Bob Riebe in 2004. They welcome visitors but ask that you please call ahead to check their schedule at (360) 598-4311. They prefer visitors give paying clients privacy and to plan a visit when no events are happening.
The location in this article is found on the right side of the original 1937 building facing a retention pond. The approximate coordinates are 47°41’59.9″N 122°34’57.0″W.
This scene was shot on March 16, 1989 toward the end of the month-long schedule in Washington state. I’ll be examining both the Pilot episode and the same scenes in Part 17 from Season 3 on Showtime. The biggest difference between the two versions is the aspect ration – 4:3 versus 16:9, the latter being a slightly cropped image.
THE BLUE PINE LODGE KITCHEN
The broadcast version of this scene opens with an interior look at the Blue Pine Lodge Lodge. Pete Martell enters from stage right and crosses to the wood-block counter. In the original “Northwest Passage” script, some action takes place before this scene.
EXT. THE PACKARD RESIDENCE – DAWN
Outside the huge log house, called Blue Pine Lodge, PETE MARTELL, a late-middle-aged man, sets some fishing gear in the back of a pick-up, then goes inside.
In reality, the scene was shot in the kitchen that is adjacent to the dining room inside Kiana Lodge. It was the first Twin Peaks film location I ever visited so it holds a special place in my heart.
Here is a quick 36-second clip of the first time I stepped into the kitchen (my excitement level was through the roof).
PETE MARTELL KISSING KATHERINE MARTELL
The script continues:
INT. BLUE PINE LODGE KITCHEN – DAWN
Pete grabs a thermos of coffee and an apple, kisses his wife, KATHERINE PACKARD MARTELL, a sturdy, weathered woman, mid- fifties, fully dressed, at the table, newspaper and coffee in hand. She doesn’t react to the kiss. Pete exits.
The Stanley thermos he grabs was made in the early 60s (that’s a different article for another time). It’s cool that the yellow apple mentioned in the script also made it in the scene. Notice “Catherine Martell” is spelled with a “K” not “C”; her name changed for Episode 1001.
The script does not contain Pete’s “Gone fishing” dialogue.
Here is a similar shot from August 9, 1996.
PETE MARTELL LEAVES TO GO FISHING
Pete exits the side door in the kitchen as Katherine continues reading her newspaper and enjoying a cup of coffee.
Thanks to fellow Bookhouse Boy Jared Lyon, we see the side door was replaced about ten years later in July 2006.
THE SIDE DOOR OF THE BLUE PINE LODGE
Pete walked out the door that was once located on this side of the Kiana Lodge.
I covered Pete’s exit from the Blue Pine Lodge in this article from February 2020. In reality, he exits the back door of the original 1937 building. We got to see that exit in extended footage used in Part 17.
The original Pilot episode cut to Pete already walking on the gravel path.
THE BLUE PINE LODGE KITCHEN TODAY
The camera hangs on Katherine for a moment after Pete exits the scene.
When I finally returned to Kiana Lodge after a 23 year hiatus, I discovered the kitchen area was completed remodeled.
PETE MARTELL CALLS SHERIFF TRUMAN
Upon finding the body wrapped in plastic, Pete telephones the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. In the script, this action takes place at a payphone on the dock.
EXT. SAWMILL DOCK – DAWN
Pete, the middle-aged man, hurriedly punches in a number on a pay phone at the end of the dock.
It’s interesting to note that Pete’s line “She’s dead, wrapped in plastic” was not in the original script. See this Quotable Peaks article for more details about this now famous line.
I always thought that the windows behind Pete in this scene were the same square windows we see when Pete first enters the kitchen. It was only after researching this article that I realized that things took place on the opposite side of this room.
In the video you see fellow Bookhouse Boy and impromptu tour guide Adam Barnick direct my friend Joe Neff and me into the kitchen area. That’s when I realized they shot Pete in front of the windows to the left of Adam.
This is an opposite view of the kitchen in August 1996. Notice the phone on the green dresser.
This clip of me ruining Joe’s shot of the kitchen shows off the windows and ledge even more. It was this particular image that confirmed my thinking. You can see the ledge and the larger connected windows in this shot.
Additionally, the outside scenes don’t match. There is no grouping of trees that we see when Pete leaves. In stead, we see an overhang which would have been toward the front of the building.
McDONALD’S SIPPY CUP PROP AT BLUE PINE LODGE
In the background of Pete’s scene, you see an out-of-focus McDonald’s cup sitting on the ledge (the same ledge that made me realize the shot was reversed). Jared Lyon first identified that it was a McDonald’s mug in June 2010 for Twin Peaks Archive. Brother Jerry Horne mentioned, “The attached image is a 1983 version of the mug, and it’s not the exact version, but you can see it’s quite similar.”
So I did some additional digging and found the replica mug used in the shot.
You’ll notice the mug on the left is the one Jerry mentions from 1983. Two year later, McDonald’s released a slightly revised version which placed Grimace next to Mayor McCheese (add this to the list of things I never thought I’d be writing about for this blog). The biggest difference is the McDonald’s logo is missing between the two characters in the later mug.
The second mug has a copyright date of 1985.
The cup was manufactured by Whirley Industries, Inc. from Warren, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1960, the company is still around today but is now known as Whirley-Drinkworks!
Of course, I could have just referred to Issue 14 of Blue Rose Magazine where my fellow author Vinnie Guidera had already identified the mug. Let’s hope the rest of this year doesn’t have me doing duplicative work. One article down for 2021 … hundreds more to go. Happy New Year!
