Twin Peaks Prop – Deer Meadow Sheriff’s Department Framed Reindeer Photo

The first 35 minutes of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me is some kind of wonderful fever dream. From Chris Isaak and Kiefer Sutherland’s performances to the strangeness of Deer Meadow, I return time and time again to these scenes. After identifying the Shyvers Multiphone in Hap’s Diner and Agent Sam Stanley’s “Whiteman Instrument” machine, I stopped by the lobby of the Deer Meadow Sheriff’s Department to identify the framed reindeer photo. Thanks again to the German 4K transfer of Lynch’s 1992 masterpiece, I easily found a match.

DEER MEADOW SHERIFF’S STATION RECEPTION AREA

After Regional Bureau Chief Gordon Cole introduces Agent Sam Stanley to Agent Chet Desmond at the Private Portland Airport, the duo drive to Deer Meadow, Washington to investigate the murder of Teresa Banks. They first stop at the Deer Meadow Sheriff’s Department. The script by David Lynch and Bob Engles from August 8, 1991 describes the action:

EXT. DEER MEADOW SHERIFF’S STATION – AFTERNOON
Desmond and Stanley arrive. The Sheriff’s Station is in a sorry state outside … They walk up the old steps and enter.

Instead of seeing the FBI Agents enter the small building, we are shown an establishing shot of the Deer Meadow Sheriff’s Station sign.

INT. DEER MEADOW SHERIFF’S STATION RECEPTION AREA – DAY
Agent Desmond and Stanley walk into a very small reception area. At the counter, Desmond shows his badge to CLIFF HOWARD, the deputy.

DESMOND
Good afternoon. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent Chet Desmond. I’d like to see Sheriff Cable.

Behind the giggling secretary is the framed reindeer photo that I’ve stared at for more than three decades and wondered about its history.

FINDING THE FRAMED REINDEER PHOTO

A few months ago, I attempted to find this image by running a cropped screencap from the Criterion Collection release through Google Images. I had zero luck despite searching multiple crops of this winter scene.

Enter the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me which was released in Germany on  December 12, 2024. Fellow Bookhouse Boy Matthew Haywood had great luck identifying the brand name printed of Agent Sam Stanley’s machine case. I used a screencap of the deer image from this high-resolution release and immediately found a match via Google Images.

An eBay auction for a postcard contained a similar, slightly-cropped image. The listing was titled, “BARREN GROUND CARIBOU Postcard RPPC Big Antlers REINDEER Arctic CANADA or ALASKA.” Barren-ground caribou are a subspecies of reindeer, or caribou, which are the same species with the scientific name Rangifer tarandus.

I immediately pushed “Buy It Now” as this was the image I was seeking!

According to the seller, AZO brand real photo postcards (RPPC) were manufactured between 1918 to 1930. Digging a little deeper, I found Playle.com that explained the dating methodology which uses the “Place Stamp Here” box to date the card.

• 1907-1909 – Diamonds in the corners
• 1908-1918 – Four triangles pointed up
• 1918-1930 – Two triangles pointed up and two triangles pointed down
• 1922-1926 – Empty corners
• 1926-1940 – Squares in corners

After the initial thrill of finding the image wore off, I was left with more mysteries to solve. Who took the photo? Where was it taken? When was it taken? Without using Sam Stanley’s machine, I soon found answers (or at least likely answers) to many of these and other questions.

THOMAS SOKWEENA THE REINDEER FAIRS IN ALASKA

Using the eBay postcard image, I turned to Bing Images to conduct additional searches. I nearly jumped out of my seat when I saw this photo which was on a Pinterest page that linked to the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections. The image was titled, “An Eskimo with his Prize Reindeer” which was under “The Pageant of America” collection in the sub-collection titled, “V.2 – The Lure of the Frontier, a story of race conflict.” The image was dated between approximately 1860 – 1920.

But it was the tree that caught my eye – it’s the same tree and most likely the same reindeer from the Deer Meadow Sheriff’s reception area.

I returned to Google Images with the newly found New York Public Library image and discovered another image of the Eskimo and reindeer by the same tree. This one was dated 1912 on Renopenrose.GetArchive.net.

A fourth found image revealed the possible date (1916), the name of the Eskimo (Thomas Sokweena) and location (Reindeer Fair at Mary’s Igloo, Seward Peninsula, Alaska). This photo was found on a post from the Campinglife Facebook page on November 28, 2024. The image and text were pulled from the University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections:

“Mary’s Igloo is located on the northwest bank of the Kuzitrin River, on the Seward Peninsula, northeast of Nome. It lies 40 miles southeast of Teller. Natives of “Kauwerak,” as the village was originally called, were Inupiaq Eskimos known as Kauweramiuts. This village was originally located about 15 miles downriver.

By 1900, Kauwerak was abandoned, and most Natives moved to Teller or Nome because of the schools and employment opportunities. Some settled at the present site, which they called “Aukvaunlook,” meaning “black whale.”

During the gold prospecting boom, non-Natives renamed the village “Mary’s Igloo,” after an Eskimo woman named Mary, who welcomed miners, trappers and other newcomers into her home for coffee. Supplies for the gold fields upriver were transferred onto river boats here. A post office and store were opened in 1901.  By 1910, Mary’s Igloo became a large mixed community of Eskimos, white traders, miners, innkeepers, missionaries and support crews for barges. The flu epidemic of 1918-19, and a tuberculosis epidemic two years later, devastated the community.

A Catholic orphanage, ‘Our Lady of Lourdes Mission,’ was opened at nearby Pilgrim Springs in 1918 by Father Bellarmine Lafortune. A Lutheran orphanage was built at nearby New Igloo. The BIA school closed in 1948 and the Alaska Native School was closed in 1952 for lack of students. The post office and store also closed in 1952. Mary’s Igloo is a summer fish camp; many traditional villagers live in Teller.”

From 1915-1917, the area around Mary’s Igloo on the Seward Peninsula was home to The Reindeer Fair. This gathering hosted by the Kakaruk Herd was designed to increase “interest in the reindeer industry and provide an opportunity for widely dispersed Eskimo herdsmen to exchange ideas.”

According to BeringStraits.com, the 1916 fair was held in February, at the Kruzamapa Hot Springs, across Golden Gate Pass from Nome. This could be the fair where Eskimo Thomas Skoweena and his reindeer seen in the Deer Meadow station were photographed.

For the third and final fair held in 1917, Eskimos arrived in their finest fur parkas, and decorated reindeer harnesses with carved pieces of walrus ivory and brightly colored yarn pompoms. Sadly, the fairs were stopped in 1918 as the influenza epidemic “killed most of the most experienced Eskimo deermen.”

With the possible date, location, and subject identified, the only mystery left to solve now is who took the photograph.

LOMEN BROTHERS PHOTOGRAPHY OF NOME, ALASKA

I stumbled upon an article published by Rebekah Burgess Abramovich for Mashable.com about the Lomen Brothers of Nome, Alaska. American entrepreneur and photographer Carl Joys Lomen (July 13, 1880 – August 16, 1965) was known as The Reindeer King of Alaska, because of his role in “organizing, promoting, marketing, and lobbying for the reindeer industry” in the first decades of the 20th century, as president of the Lomen Company.

The Lomen Brothers Co. was a photography studio founded in 1908 by brothers Carl, Harry, Alfred, and Ralph Lomen. All four brothers took photographs; however, Alfred became the most avid practitioner. According to the U.S. Department of State, their photographs “focused on a variety of subjects related to Nome and the surrounding areas, including Nome mining operations, business in Nome, dogsled teams, ships and boats, aviation, and Indigenous communities throughout Alaska and Canada.”

With this knowledge, it is most likely Alfred Lomen took the photo of Sokweena’s reindeer used for the Deer Meadow Sheriff’s Station framed image. Granted, it’s difficult to confirm this fact because a terrible fire destroyed thousands of negatives and photos.

“In 1934, after three successful decades, the Lomen photography studio burned to the ground during the great Nome fire, destroying over 30,000 negatives and 50,000 prints,” reported Burgess Abramovich for Mashable.com. “Only about 3,000 negatives were salvaged.”

The Lomen family relocated to Seattle, Washington in 1940 where they operated mines and trading posts.

Alfred Lomen died on May 18, 1950 at the age of 61 following a lingering illness.

The last of the brothers, Ralph Lomen, died on December 4, 1976 in a Seattle retirement home. In 1919, Lomen became the third paying passenger of the then fledgling Seattle firm, The Boeing Company, for a 15-minute sightseeing flight over the city. He paid $15.00 and declared it was “worth every penny” according to his Associated Press obituary.

As for the framed photo, we never see it again in the feature film or series after Special Agent Chet Desmond walks down the hall to Sheriff Cable’s office. While I don’t have the original negative, I made a high resolution scan of the postcard which you can find on my Flickr site HERE.