For decades, Twin Peaks fans have flocked to Snoqualmie Valley, Washington to visit the “Real Twin Peaks.” Despite ABC Television cancelling the series in May 1991, fans continued to visit the many film locations throughout King County, including spots located in the towns of North Bend and Snoqualmie. I recently discovered the Gray Line of Seattle even held a bus tour from May 1 to October 13, 1991 that visited a handful of locations from the show.
THE GRAY LINE OF SEATTLE
According to Visit Tacoma, the Gray Line of Seattle has been the Pacific Northwest’s tour and charter company since 1909. The Gray Line worldwide website traces the start of this sight-seeing tour company to March 1910 when a “young restaurateur by the name of Louis Bush refurbished an old Mack Truck chassis, painted it blue and gray and began offering sightseeing tours around the city of Washington, D.C.” His endeavors established the “world’s leading sightseeing tour company, known today as Gray Line.”
By 1926, Gray Line had expanded to New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, as well as internationally to Toronto and Havana. With peacetime following World War II, Harry J. Dooley, a former Gray Line employee, acquired the company and helped re-establish Gray Line Chicago. Dooley soon became president of Gray Line and is today considered the father of the sightseeing industry.
An article in The Seattle Star on May 28, 1926 highlighted Hayden Waterhouse, who was then vice president of the Yellow Cab Co. Their headquarters at the time was in the Yellow Cab Building located at Second Avenue and Bell Street in Seattle. The article continues saying the “company also owns and operates a fine fleet of Gray line and Circle Tours sightseeing and touring cars which daily make attractive trips in the city and to nearby points of interest.”
Flash forward nearly 100 years later, the Gray Line Seattle continues operating tours in the city.
TWIN PEAKS BUS TOUR IN MAY-OCTOBER 1991
On April 11, 1991, the ABC Television Network announced Mark Frost and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks would be put into “hiatus for a second time.”
The show had returned to the network on March 28. Only the final two episodes of the second season were left to air. Michael Saltzman, a spokesperson for Lynch-Frost Productions, said production on the final two episodes wrapped “three weeks ago” (which means around March 24)
“David [Lynch] is in the middle of editing the last hour of ‘Twin Peaks’,” said Saltzman, “We’re on schedule and on time as far as delivering the show … Will Bob Newhart wake up with Emily? No.”
On May 21, ABC Television’s leadership announced that Twin Peaks would not return for the fall season. The final two episodes would later air as a movie of the week on June 10, 1991.
But that announcement didn’t stop people from visiting the “Real Twin Peaks” locations, and the Gray Line of Seattle saw this as an opportunity.
One of the first mentions I found of the “Twin Peaks Tour” was in the The Spokesman Review on April 28, 1991. The Gray Line of Seattle would offer a “motorcoach tour based on the TV series ‘Twin Peaks.” Stops included Snoqualmie Falls, Salish Lodge, the Mar-T Cafe (now Twede’s Cafe) and would have Snoqualmie Wine Tasting. You had to call for dates and times.
On May 5, 1991, William Grimes of the New York Times published an article about the rise and fall of the wonderful and strange show. He included a blurb about the Twin Peaks Tour:
“Last week, the Gray Line bus company began running ‘Twin Peaks’ tours from Seattle, with stops at the real-life models for the Double R Diner and the Great Northern lodge [sic].”
Press in the New York Times no doubt prompted interest from around the world, like this mention in the Coventry Evening Telegraph on May 11, 1991. More details were shared including the length of time – four-hour tour – and that attendees would visit Snoqualmie Winery (now Snoqualmie Point Park where the Laura Palmer and Donna Hayward picnic and James Hurley at the Mountain Overlook scenes were shot).
The tours departed daily through October 13 and costs wer $22 adults, $21 for senior citizens and $11 for children ages 6 to 12. Kudos to the parents who were taking their children on this tour.
Roger Nyhus from the Associated Press penned a syndicated article about tourists still visiting Snoqualmie Valley despite the cancellation announcement. The article included a quote by Gray Line of Seattle sales director Anita Williamson that said 700 people had taken the tour since they launched on May 1. No word on how many people actually took the tour.
More interesting, the bus tour would have been running through most of the on-location filming of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. The film started production at the Riverside Mobile Home Park, home to the Fat Trout Trailer Park, in Snoqualmie, Washington on September 4-5, 1991. Attendees on September 19, may have seen shooting at the Mar-T Cafe.
WHAT TWIN PEAKS LOCATIONS DID THE GRAY LINE BUS TOUR VISIT?
Here’s the wildest part about researching this tour – I have yet to find a single photograph from anyone who took the tour. Granted, folks in 1991 did not have the mobile phones of today.
Any video would need to be converted from VHS cassettes and photos would have been captured on film. With potentially hundreds of people taking the tour in summer 1991, I expected to find at least one photo or any marketing materials advertising this popular tour.
If you have images or details about the tour, please leave a comment below or send me an email at thetwinpeaksblog@gmail.com.
With that said, I did visit the area a few years later for the Twin Peaks Fan Fest. Here are a handful of shots where the tour stopped from August 1996.
The majestic 268-foot Snoqualmie Falls, which was known as “White Tail Falls” in the show.
The Salish Lodge that overlooks Snoqualmie Falls.
The parking lot of the Salish Lodge just by the hotel.
The Mar-T Cafe in North Bend, Washington.
The original interior before the cafe became Twede’s Cafe.
This spot was once home to the Snoqualmie Winery, which ceased operations in 1991. It’s now home to Snoqualmie Point Park.
Once the tours ended, the now-closed The Alpine Blossom and Gift Shoppe in North Bend, Washington sold hand-drawn maps of locations.
Today, you can visit many of these places on your own (just reference the Twin Peaks Film Locations page). You can also take a guided tour with Special Agent David Israel by visiting TwinPeaksTour.com.
