Photos from the Real Twin Peaks

tonimarieford Random Stuff May 22, 2017 | 0

With the premiere of a brand new series of Twin Peaks almost upon us, it seemed like a good time to share some photos of the real Twin Peaks, the town of North Bend where the original series was shot.

North Bend

Full disclosure here, I’m not a Twin Peaks mega-fan. I saw the series probably around five years ago and loved it (most of it) but never really thought much about it again. When I went to the real Twin Peaks in 2013 it was a last-minute, unplanned detour as part of a last-minute, unplanned road trip from British Columbia to Seattle.

I definitely kept a diary during this road trip but one of the downsides of being nomadic is that your possessions are never at hand. Considering I can’t quite remember if I ate this morning or not, the chances of me remembering much of this trip are slim.

All I can say is that watching Twin Peaks and subsequently visiting North Bend has given me a sense of great unease when it comes to rural, mountain-enclosed small towns. Which is inconvenient given that I now live in a rural, mountain-enclosed small town.

I distinctly remember thinking North Bend was creepy, which, if you look at these photos of a clearly very pleasant and picturesque small town, was probably unfair. There were just so few people in North Bend and so much space between one thing and the next. Everybody clearly knew everybody which, as a definite city person, will always feel weird to me and no matter how sunny and charming and ‘hi, how are you?’ a place like this is, I can’t shake the idea that things must be very different when the sun goes down.

Luckily for me there are far too many tourists and temporary workers in the town I live in for it to resemble Twin Peaks, or North Bend, in the slightest. North Bend, when I visited at least, was not cashing in on its Twin Peak heritage in any real way. Apart from a few pictures in the café and the Twin Peak’s sign painted on a random wall, there was no real mention of the TV show.

North Bend has a teeny population of around 5,000 people, 46,000 less than Twin Peaks, and is only about a thirty minute drive from Seattle. Expecting a fairly cheesy attempt to cash-in on Twin Peaks enduring popularity I was surprised but relieved that there were no souvenirs, signs, re-runs at the local cinema, any mention really that this was the place. Perhaps being the home of Killer Bob is not an accolade any town really wants.