On February 28, 2026, I left my home in the Snoqualmie Valley (a.k.a. The Real Twin Peaks) and “gave myself a present” of a short road trip to Burien, WA to visit the Highline Heritage Museum, the new home of Bruce Bickford’s miniature town of Twin Peaks.
WHO IS BRUCE BICKFORD?
Bruce Bickford (February 11, 1947 – April 28, 2019) was a self-taught American artist and filmmaker, who worked largely in Claymation and line animation. Bruce gained a cult following in the 1970s for his animations for Frank Zappa, including Baby Snakes (1979), The Dub Room Special (1982), and The Amazing Mr. Bickford (1987). He is also known for his own films such as Prometheus’ Garden (1988) and CAS’L (2015) (the release date and running time of Cas’l vary depending upon the source as the film apparently evolved over time).
Bruce also is the subject of a 2004 documentary directed by Brett Ingram and entitled Monster Road. The film was released on DVD and is now out of print, but can be streamed on the eternal family streaming service (with membership). Bruce was born in Seattle, WA, died in Burien, WA and is interred at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, WA.
Bruce was a huge Twin Peaks fan, and sculpted multiple dioramas based upon the show including Special Agent Dale Cooper in Glastonbury Grove, the train car and the RR Diner. Twin Peaks was also a theme of some of his “business cards” which were essentially small sculptures encased in a white card such as this business card of Laura Palmer.
The largest of Bruce’s Twin Peaks works was an entire town of Twin Peaks in miniature.
Bruce’s entire town of Twin Peaks is legendary within the Twin Peaks fandom. Consisting of over 50 buildings it includes such landmarks as The Great Northern, White Tail Falls, The RR Diner, the Packard Sawmill, and Calhoun Memorial Hospital (located in Tukwila, WA and currently known as Olympic Heritage Behavioral Health).
The town sculpture measures 36” by 36” by 8” and is created entirely in clay. It is listed at the museum with the title “Twin Peaks Topography”.
The miniature town of Twin Peaks has its own dedicated display in the Highline Heritage Museum including information about the artwork, information about Bruce, some examples of Bruce’s “business cards” and a small TV showing Bruce’s films Cas’l and Prometheus’ Garden.
The artworks were provided to the museum by Bruce Bickford’s estate and are supported by a grant from the City of SeaTac. The creation of the exhibit was overseen by the museum’s Executive Director Nancy Salguero McKay and Executive Assistant Mariel Lees, and the artwork is now a permanent part of the museum’s collection.
South Sound Magazine has a nice article about the exhibit with interviews with the museum staff, some behind the scenes photos, and nod to fellow Twin Peaks Blog author Steven Miller’s nighttime visit to the Calhoun Memorial Hospital.
The sculpture evolved over a number of years and was shown several times at the original Twin Peaks Festival as well as being featured in the legendary Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me 20th Anniversary art exhibition in 2012 at the CoproGallery in Santa Monica, CA.
Due to Bruce’s deep ties to the Seattle area, the Highline Heritage Museum is the ideal place to serve as the long-term home of Bruce’s Twin Peaks artwork. See more close-up details of Bruce’s Twin Peaks-themed work and hear him describe his relationship to Twin Peaks as well as the process of making his ‘business cards’
WHAT IS THE HIGHLINE HERITAGE MUSEUM?
The Highline Heritage Museum is located at 819 SW 152nd Street in Burien, WA. The museum was originally founded in 1994 as the Burien Heritage Society and later became the Highline Historical Society, finally opening its doors in June 2019. The museum primarily focuses on history of the Highline region, a geographic area including the cities of Burien, SeaTac, Des Moines, Federal Way and an unincorporated area known as North Highline. Permanent exhibits include such topics as D. B. Cooper and a Megalonyx (sloth) that was recovered during Sea-Tac airport construction.
THE HIGHLINE TWIN PEAKS FESTIVAL ON FEBRUARY 27-28, 2026
The Highline Twin Peaks Festival was a two-day event taking place on February 27-28, 2026 to celebrate the opening of the Bruce Bickford Twin Peaks exhibit. The event was the brainchild of Larry Jordan, who is a member of the museum Board of Trustees. The event sponsors were the Highline Heritage Museum, the City of SeaTac, the Bruce Bickford Estate and the Tin Room.
Member Preview at the Museum, February 27, 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
The kickoff event of the Festival was a Member Preview event the evening of February 27, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Pacific time, after the museum was closed for the evening. I could not attend the Member Preview event due to scheduling, but it was generally the same as the Twin Peaks Day at the Museum event the next day.
Twin Peaks Day at the Museum, February 28, 12pm to 5pm
The next day, February 28, the museum was open from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m. with free admission to celebrate Twin Peaks and the opening of the Bruce Bickford exhibit. The museum Conference Room was overtaken by Twin Peaks with free coffee, cherry pie (provided by Jules Dessert Bar & Bakery), Twin Peaks memorabilia provided by Jason Mattson, photos provided by Nancy Closson (Shumovich), and free stickers, all while a Twin Peaks-themed quiz played on the TV.
The bulk of the conference room was given over to items supplied by Jason Mattson, Director of the Lewis County Historical Museum. Jason is a legend in the Twin Peaks prop community and perhaps most widely known for his Red Room chair that was used in Twin Peaks: The Return, which sat to the right immediately upon entering the room.
Jason’s Red Room chair has been displayed publicly several times including a few times at the original Twin Peaks Festival and it was also displayed at the Snoqualmie Valley Museum for a number of months in 2024. I was delighted to inspect Jason’s Red Room lamp, table, and floor in person (in 2024 we used my lamp and table, and Mary Hütter’s floor alongside Jason’s chair). For this specific event, sitting in the chair was not allowed.
The left side of the room featured two folding tables containing Jason’s prop replicas, with Nancy’s photos mounted behind on partitions. The items Jason supplied included replica paper items such as “Say No to Ghostwood Meeting” signs, the “Have You Seen This Man?” Bob poster, the “This Would Look Nice On Your Wall” art, multiple versions of Laura Palmer’s prom photo, and Laura’s autopsy report.
The physical artifacts included a Red Room coffee cup, an owl lamp from the Briggs home, two RR Diner coffee mugs, a Gordon Cole shadow box, the StockPot Soup sign, an Eat-It-All ice cream cone, the Big Ed’s Gas Farm Goose Decoy, and a Log Lady Diorama artwork created by Ingvild Eiring.
Photos of these and additional items from Jason’s collection can be viewed on the festival website.
The sixteen photos provided by Nancy Closson were from her time working for David Lynch’s office during the creation of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and On The Air and have not been previously exhibited. A particular highlight was Nancy herself posing with Cooper’s broken hotel room mirror. I hope she will exhibit her photos again for more fans to appreciate.
Nancy and Jason were both present at the museum during the event and happy to answer questions about the exhibition and tell stories. I also ran into some old friends and some new friends from the Real Twin Peaks event.
The Symbolic Landscapes: Decoding David Lynch’s Visual Language in Twin Peaks
At 4:30 p.m., many of us journeyed a few blocks over to The Tin Room at 923 Southwest 152nd Street. The Tin Room is a bar and restaurant with a small theater space in the back named Tin Theater which features films and live performances. The Tin Room opened in 2004 and is named in tribute to The Hi-Line Tin Shop which occupied the building for more than 70 years.
For the event, the Tin Theater was utilized and upon entering each attendee received a gift bag, a raffle ticket, and a slice of cherry pie (provided by Jules Dessert Bar & Bakery).
The presentation and discussion was conducted by Highline Heritage Museum Board of Trustees member Larry Jordan and Jason Mattson, Director of the Lewis County Historical Museum.
Larry started the discussion with a framing about the subject matter contained within Twin Peaks and David Lynch’s use of visual symbolism.
Jason then spoke in detail about the work he has put into prop research and replication, going into specific detail about his Red Room and Laura Palmer autopsy report.
Larry continued the discussion by talking about the Pacific Northwest as one of the characters in the show.
Next, they were joined by Nancy Closson (Shumovich), who discussed her photos that were featured in the exhibition. And then museum Executive Assistant Mariel Lees, who discussed working with the Bruce Bickford Estate to obtain the artwork for the museum.
Next was the raffle drawing with four prizes awarded: a Great Northern keyring, an Owl Cave patch, a copy of Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks edited by David Lavery, and a signed art print by Gilbert Leiker (illustrator of The Tao of Twin Peaks book) entitled “EraserBomb.”
Larry finished the presentation by showing several television clips that referenced Twin Peaks including The Simpsons, Sesame Street, and Psych. And with that, the presentation and the event had ended.
The gift bags contained two Highline Twin Peaks Festival stickers, a pack of the 2025 Twin Peaks: The Log Lady Chronicles trading cards by Rittenhouse Archives, and a signed copy of The Tao of Twin Peaks: The Meaning Behind David Lynch’s Hit TV Series by William Dickerson (William has been previously profiled on this blog).
The event schedule originally included a dinner and screening of the Twin Peaks Pilot, but those were cancelled due to scheduling issues. Mr. Jordan stated during the presentation that he hoped to stage the dinner and screening at a future event.
I stayed afterward to help Jason and Larry safely wrap up and load all of Jason’s memorabilia into a moving truck for returning to Jason’s home.
Overall, the event appears to have been a success for the museum, and everyone appeared to thoroughly enjoy it. During the presentation it was mentioned that they hope to make it regular event and I’m looking forward to that and wish them success.
MORE INFORMATION
More information about the Highline Heritage Museum is available via their website at https://highlinemuseum.org/, where you can browse current exhibitions, become a member, or donate.
The Bruce Bickford Estate website is at https://brucebickfordestate.com/, and contains information about Bruce’s life and career.
The webpages for the 2012 art exhibition at CoproGallery are still online: Press release, Opening event, The art
Additional photos of the Highline Heritage Museum and Highline Twin Peaks Festival are available in this Flickr album.
Bookhouse Boy Jason Mattson also contributed this article.
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