In this Twin Peaks-themed episode of House Hunters, suspended FBI Agent Dale Cooper turned local deputy meets with realtor Irene Littlehorse at the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department to review reasonably priced properties in town. This article builds upon one originally from the now defunct InTwinPeaks.com website. Which home will Cooper choose?
COOPER LOOKS FOR PROPERTY IN TWIN PEAKS
This scene from Episode 2012 was set up in Episode 1003 when Cooper says, “Diane, it’s 12:27 p.m. I’d like you to look into my pension plan options regarding outside real estate investment. I may look into purchasing a piece of property at what I assume will be a very reasonable price.” [Cue Flute]
With Cooper’s badge and gun turned over to Special Agent Roger Hardy and his team, he meets with Irene Littlehorse (played by Geraldine Keams) in the conference room at the Sheriff’s Department. Check out the green coffee mug on the table.
WHERE IS COOPER’S VICTORIAN STYLE HOME LOCATED?
The first property Cooper reviews is a Victorian home that is situated on 6 acres and was built in the 1890s. The house contains Victorian-style trim and appears to have a rose garden.
According to a label on the folder, the Victorian home is located in “Chataugua Lane.” I searched for a street with that exact name on Google Maps but did not find a match. It’s close to “Chatauqua,” which was a “an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
Here’s a closer look at the “house” image from the folder. I’m unsure who would want to live there, especially with train tracks so close to home.
As it turns out, the “home” is actually the Northwest Railway Museum located at 38625 S.E. King Street in Snoqualmie, Washington. It’s located just down the street from Smokey Joe’s Tavern which serves as the film location for Elk’s Point #9 Bar from Twin Peaks Part 14 on Showtime.
Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E) constructed the Snoqualmie depot in 1889-1890, and it was “Seattle’s response to the Northern Pacific’s selecting Tacoma as their terminus.” The depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in July 1974 (#74001963).
The image appears to have been taken from across the street where the town gazebo is located. The gazebo appears only in a deleted scene from the Twin Peaks pilot episode.
WHERE IS COOPER’S SECOND PROPERTY LOCATED?
The second folder Cooper looks at contains an image of a “cabin in the woods” with a fire place that was built in the 1920s. It’s situated on 2 acres and the snow is heavy in the winter.
The second folder Cooper looks at contains an image of a “cabin in the woods” with a fire place that was built in the 1920s. It’s situated on 2 acres and the snow is heavy in the winter.
In reality, the cabin is located on the property of the Kiana Lodge, which served as the exterior location of the Blue Pine Lodge and was the interior of the Great Northern Hotel from the Pilot episode.
Charles from InTwinPeaks.com first identified this location during a visit to Kiana Lodge in July 2009. He said the building is located close to the main building on the grounds of the property.
Sadly, Google Street View doesn’t offer a closer look at the building. You can, however, find this image on the Kiana Lodge website.
By the time I returned to Kiana Lodge in January 20202 following a 27-year absence, the cabin at Kiana Lodge had been demolished. Notice the tree near the cart on the far right side of the image closely resembles a tree in the first InTwinPeaks.com image above.
DALE COOPER FLIPS A COIN
Cooper can’t decide between the two properties, so he flips a coin. The red and grey shirt he wears is a vintage Board shirt by Pendleton.
I haven’t found an exact match for the shirt yet, but I found a vintage one on Etsy.com. Notice the cut out collar and the pockets without buttons.
Pendleton still makes men’s Board shirts, which were extremely popular with California surfers in the 1960s. It’s one of their best selling shirts, but they don’t currently offer it in the same colors as Cooper’s.
Brad Dukes, long-time Twin Peaks fan, fellow location hunter, and author of “Reflections: An Oral History of Twin Peaks,” interviewed actress Geraldine Keams on March 30, 2012. When he asked if all her scenes made it to screen, she discussed the quarter toss.
“… It took quite a while to shoot the quarter landing on the table. It had to be perfect and I realized that there were no magic tricks like they have today. They just shot it until they got it right!”
I wonder how many quarters it took to get to Dead Dog Farm.
COOPER DISCOVERS DEAD DOG FARM
Cooper grabs the Dead Dog Farm folder after the quarter lands heads up on the image.
For a brief moment, we get a look at the other folders. From what I can tell, they included properties on the following streets:
- Cedar Road
- 18th Street (with a home built in 1962)
- Central Avenue
- Lake Drive
According to the map in the front cover of the “Twin Peaks Access Guide to the Town,” none of these streets are located in the town of Twin Peaks. I wonder if they were actually other locations scouted by location managers. I would have loved to see the image of the 1962 home.
Located on 4 acres, the Dead Dog Farm home was built in the 1920s. Irene described it to Cooper:
“Of all the people in the world, the best and the worst are drawn to Dead Dog, and most turn away. Only those with the purest of heart can feel its pain. And somewhere in between, the rest of us struggle.”
Perhaps the home is cursed as it has been sold many times over the years.
The Dead Dog Farm film location is found in Sylmar, California. Unfortunately, the home was destroyed around mid-to-late 2009. You can read all about this spot in this article. 2012
The scene ends with Cooper asking to see the property. Later, we learn that Irene is from Native Way Realty, which I have to assume the “For Sale” sign was created especially for episodes 2.012 and 2.013.
INTWINPEAKS.COM
Credit for most of this article goes to the excellent work Charles posted on InTwinPeaks.com. Below is a tribute image to his original posting from that site (Click to enlarge the image).
