What is the Stone Sundial Outside the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department?

During the first two seasons of Twin Peaks, a stone sundial is seen outside the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. This monument paid tribute to an early resident of Snoqualmie Valley who was a beloved and respected mill manager.

THE STONE SUNDIAL OUTSIDE THE TWIN PEAKS SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT

During the first two seasons of David Lynch and Mark Frost’s wonderful and strange show, viewers could see a giant stone outside the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department. The stone contained a sundial on top and a bronze plaque of a man’s face on the front. The stone was located at the former Weyerhaeuser Lumber Office which is now home to Dirtfish Rally School.  The approximate coordinates of the location are 47°32’16.2″N 121°48’42.0″W.

The stone is seen in various establishing shots of the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department during the first and second season.

Sometimes the stone is close to the screen as in this shot from episode 2.009 (#16).

The final episode of the second season – episode 2.022 (#22) – is the last time the stone is seen in the show.

By the time Twin Peaks: The Return aired, the stone was gone from outside the Sheriff’s station.

WHO IS PICTURED ON THE FRONT OF THE STONE OUTSIDE TWIN PEAKS SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT?

This stone has a bronze likeness and sundial of W.W. Warren, who served as the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company mill manager when the facility opened in November 1917. This stone was one of four similar memorials to the mill manager in Snoqualmie Valley.

Warren ran mill operations from 1917 until his untimely passing in April 1921. He was a beloved and respected manager who cared deeply for his employees, encouraging the lumber company owners to construct a hospital on site in case of accidents.

According to a July 14, 1922 issue of the Salesman Log, the boulder was installed outside the original lumber mill office building.

“A SUN DIAL on a boulder in front of the office building marks the time of day for the employee of the Snoqualmie Fall Lumber Company. It is a reminder of W.W. Warren, their first manager, who gave the last six years of his life to building in the midst of a Douglas Fir forest, one of the largest units for the manufacture of fir lumber. The boulder and dial, together with a bronze plaque of Mr. Warren, were presented by the employees and were dedicated recently with fitting memorial services. The music of the saws were still while tribute was paid to the man who made Snoqualmie possible.”

In 1948, Weyerhaeuser acquired the Snoqualmie Falls Lumber Company and operated the mill as the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. Based on my research on the excellent Snoqualmie Valley Historical Museum, it appears a new mill office was constructed around 1947-1948. The building is the same one that is seen today on the property and was used extensively in the pilot episode and Twin Peaks The Return as the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department.

Al Smith is seen standing by the Warren Sundial outside the front of the mill office building. Look carefully behind Smith to see familiar steps and square windows seen in Twin Peaks.

During my first visit to the Real Twin Peaks, I photographed the stone boulder during the film location bus tour. At some point, the boulder was placed on a small square cement base.

Fellow Bookhouse Boy and former Twin Peaks Fan Festival organizer Jared Lyon took additional photos of the former mill office and stone bolder throughout the 2000s. This photo is from August 19, 2001 during a visit to this film location. Two years later on May 30, 2003, the mill finally closed as reported by Sara Jean Green in The Seattle Times

There is no ribbon-cutting equivalent when a community institution fades away, so there was no fanfare, no parades through town yesterday as the last workers at Weyerhaeuser’s Snoqualmie mill shipped out their last lumber orders and quietly closed up shop for good.The last lumber passed through the wood-finishing plant earlier this month at the mill, which had been in operation for more than 85 years. The last planers and dry-kiln workers — those who had managed to hold onto their jobs even after a decade or so of layoffs — marked the mill’s closure with a steak-and-baked-potato cookout on May 8, one worker said.

When the company announced in October that it was closing its King County operations and would lay off the last group of about 110 Snoqualmie workers, it didn’t come as much of a surprise.

The Snoqualmie sawmill was shut down in 1989 and another mill was dismantled in the early 1960s, leaving only the wood-finishing plant and dry kiln. Those facilities will now be mothballed, their machinery salvaged and moved to other locations, said company spokesman Frank Mendizabal.

A photo from July 31, 2004 gives a better look at the base of the stone boulder. This was constructed after filming was done for Twin Peaks in the early 1990s. You can see the Weyerhaeuser logo on the front.

The stone structure was still located out front during the 2006 Twin Peaks Fan Festival. Jared took this photo on July 29 that year of the building exterior along with someone’s creative enhancement to the fire lane.

Here is another look at the stone and building from 2006.

The final photo from Jared was taken on July 28, 2007. It’s a fantastic shot of the stone details, including the sundial. Sadly, the stone was removed at some point after this photo. No one knows what happened to it.

OTHER W.W. WARREN MEMORIALS IN SNOQUALMIE, WA

While the stone no longer exists, you can see another W.W. Warren Memorial at the Snoqualmie United Methodist Church.

This Rose Window in the church’s gable was donated in honor of Warren by his wife Lula Christina.

The church doesn’t appear in the the show or the film but it’s a unique connection to the guy who appears on screen multiple times.

The other two memorials to Warren include the voting precinct for the former town of Snoqualmie Falls and surrounding territory was called the Warren Precinct and the more recent Warren Avenue found on Snoqualmie Ridge.