Spokane’s ‘Twin Peaks’ connections are as strong as a cup of Joe from the Double R Diner

In the pilot episode of the surrealist mystery and pop culture phenomenon “Twin Peaks,” good-natured yet idiosyncratic FBI agent Dale Cooper notes that the town lies about 5 miles south of the Canadian border and 12 miles west of the state line.

Since the 1990 show centered on the spooky happenings surrounding the murder of a local teen is confirmed to be set in the state of Washington, that places it just north of Metaline Falls in Pend Oreille County – and that also means almost all of the series’ strange happenings are set in the Inland Northwest.

As the region mourns the death Wednesday of series creator (and onetime Spokane resident) David Lynch, here’s a roundup of some of the most noteworthy local mentions in “Twin Peaks”:

• Jerry Horne, the hedonistic brother of morally questionable Great Northern Hotel magnate Ben Horne, is mentioned as having graduated from Gonzaga University (last in his class – ouch).
• Cooper, the show’s unconventional, cherry pie-loving protagonist, tells the proprietor of a Canadian brothel while conducting a rescue mission that he and his friend had arrived there from the Tri-Cities.
• Maddy Ferguson, the cousin of murdered teen and series lynchpin (no pun intended) Laura Palmer, visits the grieving Palmer parents from her hometown of Missoula. Important note: Missoula was also the hometown of Lynch, who spent parts of his childhood in Spokane and Sandpoint, as well.
• Windom Earle, a rogue ex-FBI agent and Cooper’s former partner, pretends to be a doctor stopping over in Twin Peaks while visiting Spokane for a medical conference as part of his sinister reconnaissance work.
• When Earle plans to kill a young man to taunt Cooper, the unsuspecting victim asks whether his unfolding entombment is part of the festivities for the Lilac Parade – a reference surely lost on most viewers, but that makes perfect sense to those familiar with Spokane’s annual springtime event.
• After that victim, Rusty, is found dead, his friend tells deputies that the young man had been living with an uncle in Moses Lake.
• Leo Johnson, a ne’er-do-well truck driver in town, was cleared of suspicion in one crime because he was locked up in jail in Hungry Horse, Montana, at the time.
• In the series’ prequel film, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me,” Cooper’s boss at the FBI, Gordon Cole (played by none other than Lynch himself) introduces an FBI agent who flew in from Spokane.
• Sheriff Harry S. Truman mentions in one episode he feared losing deputy and superstar tracker Tommy “Hawk” Hill to the “Kalispel woods,” an apparent reference to the local tribe and the many geographical locations named for it.
• William Hayward, the town coroner and seemingly its only general practitioner, mentions that his roommate from medical school drowned during a rafting trip on the Snake River.
• Nadine Hurley, a freakishly strong 35-year-old who re-enrolls in high school following a mental break and joins the boys wrestling team, mentions in one scene past competitors from Yakima and Spokane.
• Phillip Gerard, a one-armed traveling shoe salesman who occasionally becomes embodied by reformed malevolent spirit MIKE, is said to be a Spokane native, according to promotional character cards released around the time of the series’ original run.
• Annie Blackburn, Cooper’s love interest and sister of Double R Diner proprietor Norma Jennings (and winner of Miss Twin Peaks 1989!), came to the town after a stint as a nun at a convent in Kennewick. Before that, she had been convalescing in a Spokane psychiatric hospital after a suicide attempt, according to the 2017 book “Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier.”

And here’s a real-life fact to round out the list: Series star Kyle MacLachlan (Cooper) is a native of Yakima and, as an avid vintner, owns Pursued by Bear winery in Walla Walla.

Editor’s note: This list is not necessarily comprehensive. In addition, the story was updated to add three other Spokane-area references.