In 1905, Portland held a four-month, World’s Fair-size celebration to commemorate the Lewis and Clark Expedition, unveiling as an attraction a log cathedral that housed exhibits on local wildlife and artifacts. This was the Forestry Building, and it burned to the ground in 1964. What we know now as the World Forestry Center opened less than a decade later, when civic leaders made it their mission to rebuild the lumber-loving structure as a neighbor to the Oregon Zoo.

Often overlooked for flashier Washington Park attractions—like the zoo, the Japanese Garden, even Hoyt Arboretum—World Forestry Center still works to draw visitors to its woodsy, lodge-like Discovery Museum. To this end, they have secured a log of interest, the log of Twin Peaks’ Log Lady.

While she wasn’t a lead character in David Lynch’s surreal drama, townsperson and soothsayer Margaret Lanterman (Catherine Coulson) became an immediate fan favorite. The character's story actually bears a poetic parallel to the World Forestry Center’s rise from the ashes as Lanterman’s lumberjack husband was killed in a fire, a tragedy from which she salvaged a log that becomes her source of insight. The Log Lady was more Oracle of Delphi than town weirdo. Or maybe she was both.

Coulson died of lung cancer in 2015, just four days after completing her final scenes for Twin Peaks: The Return. (Her character suffered the same illness.) On the heels of Lynch’s death in January, the Forestry Center’s pop-up exhibit feels fated, a direct testament to Coulson and a not-so-subtle nod to the enigmatic director who helped shape her story.

What the Log Saw: Honoring the Legacy of Catherine “The Log Lady” Coulson, begins in the museum's lobby, where a Log Lady cardboard cutout greets visitors, her gaze cocked, her log cradled like a sleeping child. Beside it is a wooden case of Twin Peaks mementos: Kodak prints of Coulson hanging with Sheryl Lee and Ray Wise, a Log Lady t-shirt, a 1990 save-the-date for the Environmental Media Association’s Twin Peaks-themed “evening to benefit TreePeople.”

The exhibition’s main attraction is tucked upstairs in the Forestry Leadership Hall. On the way to it, visitors might take in a cross-section of a 700-year-old tree, its rings radiating outward like ripples on a lake. A constructed forest in the center of the space stretches skyward. There’s a hollow log filled with models of snakes and insects. The Log Lady would have dug this place.

The exhibit aims to explore how Coulson used her platform to advocate for wildfire prevention, but it’s also… well… pretty focused on her log. Whether it’s worth schlepping up to Washington Park to see it depends on your devotion to Twin Peaks or your preexisting interest in logging machinery. But if you’re familiar with Twin Peaks’ strange magnetism, you also know that the Log Lady’s piece of Ponderosa pine is not your everyday hunk of wood.

Housed in one of two small cases, the titular log—repaired with a streak of hot glue—rests on black fabric, in the company of the Log Lady’s red prop glasses (real) and her acorn brooch (reconstructed by an Etsy seller). An adjacent case contains a collage of photographs and memorabilia, including a letter of thanks from the US Forest Service and a particularly cute snapshot of Lynch holding a baby, perhaps Coulson’s daughter Zoey Yinger.

Through the exhibit’s interpretive texts, I learned a little more about Coulson’s advocacy. “I remember her, dressed as Margaret—sometimes with Smokey Bear—teaching my schoolmates in elementary school about wildfires. My mom was a warm, loud, and funny person,” reads a quote from Yinger.

This exhibit coincides with the tour of a new documentary about Coulson’s life I Know Catherine, the Log Lady, which screens at Hollywood Theatre on May 14 and Kiggins Theatre in Vancouver, WA from May 16-May 18. Additionally, Oregon Symphony will perform selections from Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks score on May 28. The peak event is doubtlessly Log Lady Day at the Forestry Center on May 17, which invites Log Lady look-alikes to an afternoon contest for cherry pie.

Before leaving the World Forestry Center, I paused at the cross-section of the 700-year-old tree and pressed my cheek against its surface. As I sensed its cool temperature, I realized that I was copying the Log Lady’s practice. It’s certainly enticing—the thought that maybe, if we put our ear to the bark, nature will try to tell us something.

What the Log Saw: Honoring the Legacy of Catherine “The Log Lady” Coulson is on display at the World Forestry Center, 4033 SW Canyon Rd, through Sun June 8, exhibit included with general admission, hours and more info at worldforestry.org.