You Can Get Reasonably Priced Property in Twin Peaks, WA. Sort of.

While Twin Peaks is a real place name in the state of Washington, the crime-drama of the same name was actually based on the area near Snoqualmie Falls, WA. The actual place name refers to two mountain peaks about 37 miles due east of Everett.

But since I've started watching Twin Peaks recently, today we're going to have some damn fine coffee with our cherry pie and discuss the railroad activity near Snoqualmie Falls.

Image: Snoqualmie Depot (circa 1900). Northwest Railway Museum. The Depot is now maintained by the museum.


Both the Milwaukee Road Pacific Extension and the Seattle Lake Shore & Eastern (later Northern Pacific) had routes that traversed the area near Snoqualmie Falls, in addition to numerous logging spurs owned by the Weyerhaeuser Company. The SLS&E came first, constructing the Snoqalmie Depot in 1890, according to the Northwest Railway Museum.

Our Abandoned & Out-of-Service Railroad Lines map shows each line with the exception of the logging spurs.

Railroad tracks above Snoqualmie Falls, May 6, 1898. H. Ambrose Kiehl photo.

The Northwest Railway Museum continues to run a 5.5 mile heritage line adjacent to the Falls, called the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad, but the rest of the railroads in area have been abandoned.

Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. Dan Detnick, photographer.

While railroad activity along those lines have ceased, they still are quite heavily used as rail-trails. The NP line is now the Preston-Snoqualmie Trail, and the Milwaukee Road line is now the Snoqualmie Valley Trail.

Thanks as always for reading!

Location: Snoqualmie Falls, Snoqualmie, WA 98024, USA

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