During the first Twin Peaks Fan Festival on August 14-16, 1992, thousands of Twin Peaks fans descended on the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend, Washington for a weekend filled with cherry pie, celebrity sightings, and the premiere of David Lynch’s newest film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. As part of the festivities, fans visited booths that sold Twin Peaks merchandise, both officially licensed and fan created. One of the latter items offered attendees a way to take home “Twin Peaks Mountain Spring Water” from the “Real Twin Peaks” of Snoqualmie Valley. Here is a look back at how this unique fan souvenir was created.
TWIN PEAKS MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER
The Associated Press first published as story about this locally created souvenir around August 12, 1992, which was two days before the start of the 1992 Twin Peaks Fan Festival.
According to this story, four Washington state residents hatched the plan to bottle water from Snoqualmie Valley and sell them to attendees visiting for this event.
The article mentions the four individuals – Harold and Pepper Schenne of Snoqualmie, Ed Miller of Redondo and Steve Howard of Kirkland – worked for “several weeks” on planning and then presented an acceptable plan to the city of Snoqualmie, Washington. This meant that this plan must have been in the works for several months throughout 1992.
One major announcement could have sparked the idea for this bottled water – the announcement of the 1992 festival.
The 1992 fan festival was first announced in newspaper articles around mid-June 1992. At the time, the “Twin Peaks Chamber of Commerce” announced the festival would include celebrity appearances, One-Eyed Jack’s Casino, Cherry Pie Eating Contest, Log Lady Relay Race, a raffle of “Twin Peaks” collectibles and photo opportunities at various film locations.
The “Twin Peaks Chamber of Commerce” was actually the Snoqualmie Falls Chamber of Commerce, once located at 108 Railroad Avenue in Snoqualmie (I believe the building was torn down at some point after 2008).
The chamber worked with New Line Cinema to host the United States premiere of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me at the North Bend Theatre during this festival. They built an entire weekend of festivities around this film premiere which attracted 10,000 visitors to Snoqualmie Valley.
I’m assuming that it was around this time the Schennes with Miller and Howard dreamt up this plan. This wouldn’t have been the first time, however, that locals wanted to cash in on the Twin Peaks phenomena.
Joanne Richter who operated The Alpine Blossom and Gift Shoppe in North Bend once sold logs pulled from her backyard.
“The logs were a deal at $3.95 each,” said Richter. “My husband gets them out of the yard. Then I put the signs on them. They sell like crazy … The log was a customer’s idea … [After] The first one I sold, we just went in the back room and laughed and laughed and laughed.”
There was a whole cottage industry of souvenirs celebrating the “Real Twin Peaks” that appealed to the thousands of visitors to Snoqualmie Valley in search of film locations, coffee, pie and more.
WHO CREATED THE TWIN PEAKS MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER?
The Bellingham Herald also ran the Associated Press story about bottled water but offered some additional details not found in previous stories about the four entrepreneurs behind Twin Peaks Mountain Spring Water.
In 1992, Harold Schenne, Jr. owned a restaurant consulting firm in Snoqualmie. Together with his wife Pepper, they offered computer consulting, ran a marketing company and were in the catering business. Ed Miller owned a floor-covering business and check-cashing company. Steve Howard was also a computer consultant.
It was a chance meeting in the Snoqualmie City Hall parking lot that brought the foursome together. The Schenne’s were on their way to see Snoqualmie City Manager Kim Wilde about their proposal to buy water from Snoqualmie for their project.
After the chance meeting, the four partners worked together to create a singular plan which was then presented to Wilde. They would pay the regular metered rate for excess spring water from Snoqualmie plus a fee for resale.
Wilde, who assumed the city administrator’s position on February 8, 1988, was a native of the Intermountain West, he grew up in Montana, Nevada and Utah. He served as an assistant city manager for the cities of St. George and Green River, Utah, and Ardmore, Oklahoma. Prior to moving to Snoqualmie, he served as city manager of Russell, Kansas.
As an odd footnote, he abruptly resigned his position around October 2, 2008 and left town shortly thereafter. He’s now retired in Texas after holding roles with FEMA and other City Management positions until 2019.
With water secured, the foursome turned to Columbia Winery in Woodinville, Washington to bottle the water. A subsidiary of E & J Gallo Winery, Columbia Winery operated a tasting room from 1988-2022 in the town. Today, they continue distributing their Eastern Washington-wines through national retailers. The former tasting room was recently reopened by Landmark Event Co. as a special event space.
There would be two bottles created – one for Twin Peaks fans labeled “Twin Peaks Mountain Spring Water” and a second offered to local restaurants with the label “Snoqualmie Mountain Spring Water.”
“It’s the best water in the country,” exclaimed Pepper Schenne when asked why the foursome made this bottled water. “It’s an incredible product.”
Columbia produced 12,000 bottles for the event weekend. Two-thirds of those bottles would be available for sale while the rest were distributed as prizes to attendees or used at the barbecue held at the former Snoqualmie Winery (known today as Snoqualmie Point Park).
TWIN PEAKS MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER AT THE FAN FESTIVAL
Thanks to local news reports captured during the event weekend, we know there was a booth set up at the event which carried the bottled water. Bottles were priced at $3.95.
In a News Tribune article from August 15, 1992, Gina Meyer, a teacher and waitress at the Mar-T Cafe, thought the bottled water was one of the most ridiculous souvenirs from the event.
“Can you believe it?” asked Meyer who said she’d been pouring her customers the same quality of water from the tap all day. “Would you spend your money on this?”
Closeups show the water being poured into small cups from wine bottles. Most likely, the individuals staffing the booth were the four water entrepreneurs. Video quality is dismal so it’s difficult to discern who was in attendance.
In addition to the bottled water, Twin Peaks-themed coffee was also sold during the first fan festival. It’s unclear who made the coffee and if it was the same foursome who created the water.
I loved seeing both the bottle water and coffee next to a CD longbox of the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack.
The label also mentioned the Mountain Spring water was “Artesian Water with no Additives.”
Fellow Bookhouse Boy Karl Reinsch reminded me that there is a bottle currently on display inside Twede’s Cafe. You’d think that after multiple visits to North Bend, Washington that I would have a photo of it. But I have yet to locate in my collection.
Channel 11 reporter Claudia Cottle referenced the bottled water during her report from the festival. She is seen pouring it into a wine glass with mountains behind her.
I wish I knew how many bottles were sold that weekend or if they continued offering both the “Twin Peaks” and “Snoqualmie” versions of this water in town. Newspaper reports about the bottled water dried up after August 1992, which makes me think it was not offered in market beyond the festival.
Did you try this water? Do you have a bottle in your collection? Please let me know in the comments. This is one of those articles I’ll revisit if or when I discover any new information.
