The book takes the form of a dossier of documents, letters, clippings and notes compiled by an unnamed individual referred to as The Archivist. The dossier was recovered in a steel lockbox at an undisclosed crime scene, and has been assigned by
Federal Bureau of Investigation Deputy Director
Gordon Cole to an FBI analyst with the initials "TP" for review and investigation. The documents are presented in a roughly chronological order, beginning with the exploration of the area by the
Lewis and Clark Expedition, correspondence with President
Thomas Jefferson, and
Meriwether Lewis's mysterious death in 1809. The next section concerns the flight of the
Nez Perce people from the area, with their leader
Chief Joseph. Both Lewis and Joseph are mentioned to have experienced "vision quests" in the area where Twin Peaks would be founded. The town of Twin Peaks is founded when two families, the Packards and the Martells, form two rival sawmills on either side of the river. In 1927, boy scout Andrew Packard and scoutmaster Dwayne Milford see a giant figure in the woods during a camping trip. Milford confides to Packard that his brother, Douglas Milford, also reported seeing a similar figure. Douglas Milford—a minor character in the television series—subsequently becomes one of the key figures in the book. His involvement with the
Roswell UFO incident while with the U.S. Army Air Forces sees him assigned to investigate UFO sightings and abduction claims for
Project Sign,
Project Grudge and
Project Blue Book, and to establish Listening Post Alpha, a
SETI facility near Twin Peaks. In 1940, three children including Maggie Coulson (the
Log Lady), Carl Rodd (the trailer park owner from
Fire Walk with Me) and Alan Traherne, go missing in the woods, re-appearing with strange triangular markings on their bodies, and
no memory of that day. The last section covers the events of the television series, including the murder of
Laura Palmer. The backstories of several other characters including
Josie Packard,
Lawrence Jacoby,
Ed and
Nadine Hurley, and
Norma and
Hank Jennings are revealed in extracts from a book on notable local families by Dr. Lawrence Jacoby's brother Robert. The Archivist is revealed to be Major
Garland Briggs, whose final entry in the dossier notes that "something's wrong" with
Dale Cooper and ends with the word "
*M*A*Y*D*A*Y*". The FBI analyst notes that Briggs subsequently disappeared, and Cooper's whereabouts are also unknown, with files on them at the
USAF and FBI classified well above top secret. She signs off her investigation notes as Special Agent Tamara Preston. ==Background==