Canadian Reporter Visits The Real Twin Peaks in Summer 1990

Following a successful first season of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s Twin Peaks, reporters from around the world went in search of the Real Twin Peaks, the towns of Snoqualmie Valley, Washington featured in the show. I love finding these reports from the early days as they capture forgotten details that shaped the region. Jane Stevenson, once a reporter for The Canadian Press, visited the area in Summer 1990. Her syndicated story was first published around June 10 via The Associated Press. Newspapers would continue publishing versions of the story until mid-September that year.  To fill out the story, I’ve added a few undated photographs (possibly mid-1990s) I acquired at auction and other images I’ve taken during trips to Washington.

WHO IS JANE STEVENSON?

According to her bio, Jane Stevenson has been a Toronto Sun columnist since 1995, serving as a music critic with an avid interest in film and television.

When she worked for the Canadian Press in 1990, she was the editor-writer in their entertainment department based in Toronto). She loves journalism because “I love (most) creative people and I love writing and when I can combine those two things with my love of music, tv, or film, all the better.” She seemed perfectly suited for a trip to the Real Twin Peaks more than three decades ago.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES ABOUT THE REAL TWIN PEAKS BY JANE STEVENSON

Stevenson’s article, titled “TV Show Draws Fans to Town,” first appeared in The Anchorage Daily News on June 10, 1990. It was published by the Associated Press which means the paper pulled the article from wire reports. A few days later, The Evening Tribune ran a version of it on June 22, 1990.

Throughout the summer, news outlets ran the story, editing its length depending on space available in the paper. On July 28, 1990, The Ottawa Sun ran this version.

The same story was included in at least 18 papers I found with the last publication being a severely edited story in the Niagara Falls Review on Sept. 15, 1990 containing the headline, “Twin Peaks popular.”

While the story was edited for space in publications, I particularly enjoyed seeing the headlines. I imagine local editors had fun coming up with various attention-grabbing sentences to encourage readership. Clearly, alliteration was a popular device with headlines like, “TV show makes town tourist trap.”

MAPS OF SNOQUALMIE VALLEY – BORST LAKE

Another thing I enjoy with these early trip reports are the maps of the area. In a time before the internet, Google Maps and other GPS devices, hand drawn maps were the only way to explore the area. I remember picking up one at the Alpine Blossom and Gift Shoppe in North Bend during my first visit in August 1996.

It’s no surprise Snoqualmie Falls was called out as it’s remained a top tourist destination in Washington for more than a century.

This one from The Ottawa Sun shows the location in proximity to British Colombia and the city of Vancouver.

It’s nice to see Borst Lake called out on both maps. It’s located along Southeast Mill Pond Road in Snoqualmie where there is a small pull off area offering spectacular views of Mount Si. The lake is named after the father of Snoqualmie Valley, Jeremiah Borst.

Twenty-eight year old Mr. Borst arrived in the Valley via the Cedar River Pack Trail around 1858. A young adventurer with dreams of verdant farmland, he moved onto the land that would become the Fat Trout Trailer Park in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

Borst acquired more than 900-acres of land. He even planted an apple orchard on the land where Mt. Si High School (exterior of Twin Peaks High School). Much of his original farming homestead is now found at Meadowbrook Farm. He sold that farm in 1882 to the Hop Growers Association and moved to nearby Tollgate Farm.

Borst died on August 10, 1890 at the age of 60 from typhoid fever. He is buried in Fall City cemetery along with other founders of the region.

JANE STEVENSON’S TRIP TO SNOQUALMIE VALLEY IN SUMMER 1990

Tourists are flocking to this old logging town tucked away in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains.

It’s not because of the magnificent Douglas firs that tower over visitors to the Snoqualmie Valley, a 20-minute drive southeast of Seattle.

Or the breathtaking 82-metre-high [ed note. 268-feet] Snoqualmie Falls, minutes away from Interstate 90.

It’s Big Edds Drive Thru-Dine In, home of the Twin Peaks burger.

“You get an extra patty of meat and a bag of potato chips with it,” Big Ed explained. “That’s Twin Peaks, that surreal nighttime soap filmed in Snoqualmie and nearby North Bend, has finished for the season. But for people such as Big Edd Larson, the effects of Snoqualmie’s brush with stardom linger on.

The fictional TV story started with the death of high school prom queen Laura Palmer. In the weeks that followed, director David Lynch uncovered one bizarre twist after another in the mythical town of Twin Peaks.

PRESS INVADES AREA

After the two-hour pilot drew hit ratings on April 8, the public and press invaded the area where it was filmed.

Larson made up 50 T-shirts that said I Ate a Twin Peaks Burger at Big Edds. They were all sold in a week and a half.

“Yesterday, I had some people from Arizona come in and they wanted five,” Larson said. “So they gave me their address to ship them across the

Larson isn’t alone.

“Before we might make one cherry pie a week, now we’re making more like 20 pies a week,” said Pat Cokewell, owner of the Mar-T Diner in North Bend.

The Mar-T was used by Lynch, director of Blue Velvet and the Elephant Man, as the location for the Double-R Diner in Twin Peaks, where FBI agent Dale Cooper regularly dropped in for a slice of pie.

Sitting in one of the brown and navy booths, Cokewell proudly shows off autographs of cast and crew members in a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings about the TV show [ed. note – I wonder where that scrapbook is today?]

Executive producer Mark Frost has requested, “Keep those pies coming!”

“I mailed two to Chicago, Federal Express, yesterday,” said Cokewell, whose freshly coiffed beehive hair-do suits the diner’s ’50s decor.

Business is also up at the luxurious Salish Lodge overlooking Snoqualmie Falls. The resort doubled for the Great Northern Lodge in Twin Peaks.

“It certainly has given us business due to the exposure, but it’s hard to tell how much,” said Stan Knott, assistant general manager of Salish Lodge.

“It was great when the movie actors were in town,” said Doug Demmarell, whose coffee shop is one of several along Snoqualmie’s main drag. “They came in and bought a lot of coffee. They’re really nice people.”

Demmarell missed seeing most of the pilot, however.

“I only watched the first 15 minutes of the very first show, because I had a really good karate tape.”

Some others in Snoqualmie Valley changed channels after the murder of Laura Palmer set the stage for wife-beating, adultery, blackmail, psychological abuse, prostitution and drug-dealing-dealing.

A lot of the residents don’t like the show itself, but they look at it to see the local scenery,” said Cokewell. “It has a little more sex in it than some of us like to look at on TV.”
However, Jerry Espinoza, owner of Moon Valley Video Rentals in Snoqualmie, figures Twin Peaks showed it like it is. “It’s reality,” he said. “If you read the newspapers, it’s what happens across the country, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

‘THEY’VE HAD ENOUGH’

But not in Snoqualmie, population 1,500, where there hasn’t been a murder in more than a decade and where residents who holiday in Santa Cruz, Calif., are considered news in the local weekly paper – “A good time was had by all.”

“I’ve lived here for 16 years and I chose to live in a small town,” said Diane Hume, a bartender at Smokey Joe’s Tavern.

Because it’s the only watering hole in Snoqualmie, Smokey Joe’s is a popular place for reporters researching the Twin Peaks phenomenon.

“They’ve had enough,” said Hume of her patrons.

“At first it was fun and exciting, but one in particular said, ‘Get your camera away from me. I’m here to have a beer.'”

A Seattle TV station reported recently that Lynch will return to the area this summer to shoot footage for Twin Peaks‘ second season. But the report may have been premature.

“As far as we know those are just rumors,” said a spokesman for Lynch-Frost productions in Los Angeles.

It’s refreshing to know that decades later, the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend continue celebrating this wonderful and strange show, especially with events like the Real Twin Peaks (which returns again in February 2026).