Early in Twin Peaks Part 1 on Showtime, there is an establishing shot of the fictional town of Buckhorn, South Dakota. This episode debuted on May 21, 2017, and by June 11, I had found the location.
WHERE IS THE ESTABLISHING SHOT FOR BUCKHORN, SOUTH DAKOTA LOCATED?
In reality, Buckhorn, South Dakota is actually the town of Butte, Montana.
Yes Mr. Touchdown, that same “BUTTE!”
MOUNTAIN CON MINE
I knew the location wasn’t shot in southern California as the landscape was too green. I have to give credit to an anonymous comment I found on some website which indicated it was the town of Butte (unfortunately I can’t recall which website had the comment). I searched for a few weeks on Google Maps looking for mining towns outside of Los Angeles. I never thought they would actually use footage from Butte.
The view of downtown Butte was capture just below a viewing area at Mountain Con Mine in Montana. The approximate coordinates are 46°01’23.0″N 112°31’59.2″W.
Unlike other locations that used stock footage, I believe this shot may have been captured by Jason S and his crew while they were gathering footage from Impressions: A Journey Behind the Scenes of Twin Peaks for the Blu-ray release. It’s similar to the establishing shot of Bell’s Motor Lodge in Spearfish, South Dakota.
