Twin Peaks Prop – Mr. Tojamura’s Great Northern Key Tag

A prop master’s work isn’t always flashy. Often, they are tasked with making pragmatic choices to flesh out a scene with items that the audience won’t even notice. These are some of the stories I’ve most enjoyed as I’ve gotten to know Twin Peaks prop master Jeff Moore, whose work in the second season both added to the mystery and kept the fictional world grounded in reality. One of those simple, grounded props was the original Great Northern Hotel key tag.

APPEARANCES OF GREAT NORTHERN KEY TAG

In episode 2.004, Mr. Tojamura checks in with Louie “Birdsong” Budway at the Great Northern’s registration desk.

Louie is on high alert for M.T. Wentz, a food critic who travels incognito and pays only with cash. Mr. Tojamura, who is actually Catherine Martell disguised as a Japanese businessman, fits the bill. Louie hands Tojamura a room key and recommends a stop at the Double R Diner.

This is the first time a Great Northern room key is deliberately featured, so the look of the key tags had not yet been established onscreen. Prop master Jeff Moore had to be resourceful on the fly as this prop was not explicitly mentioned in the script and hotel’s set dressing did not include any that he could borrow.

MAKING MR. TOJAMURA’S KEY TAG PROP

Discussing this piece at the Real Twin Peaks prop panel in February 2026, Jeff said “I had to just figure it out. What am I going to do? She has to hand her a key. So I pulled one of the name tags, and it happened to be my sister’s name. The name I had on that was Toni Ann.”

With a little bit of work, this prop was repurposed. “I get the thing, pull the pin off of the back, have a drill gun drill a hole in the top, took some Mylar gold tape, covered up Toni Ann,” Jeff said.

Though the name is faintly visible through the tape on the original prop, the scene was shot from a distance and Jeff’s improvisation is passable onscreen.

GREAT NORTHERN NAME TAGS

At the previous year’s prop panel, Jeff shared that using the names of his crewmates and family members wasn’t just a series of fun Easter eggs.

“Names are very sensitive in film,” he said. “So I used Stephen [Gibson]’s name, I used Rich [Robinson]’s name, I used my name, I used my sister’s name. I used any name that I knew that if they saw it, they wouldn’t get mad and come after the show and sue us.”

In episode 2.019, Jeff’s name appears on a Great Northern bellman’s uniform worn by actor John Charles Sheeham.

Since acquiring a small collection of Jeff’s remaining props several years ago, I’ve enjoyed displaying these at Twin Peaks fan events across the country to highlight some of the overlooked work that he and his team did to populate our favorite fictional town.

WHAT ABOUT THE GREEN KEY TAG?

Lastly, you may be wondering about the green key tag to room 315 that seems so ubiquitous. These never actually appeared onscreen until Showtime’s Twin Peaks revival in 2017

This is one of a few notable examples of fan-created art that made it into the official Twin Peaks universe. Key tags for fictional locations like Twin Peaks’ Great Northern Hotel and The Shining’s Overlook Hotel were popular on sites like Amazon and Etsy long before the third season aired, and it is possible the prop department may have taken inspiration directly from the unofficial fan merchandise.

So no, YOU didn’t dream these up. But who is the dreamer?