"My husband died in a fire. No one can know my sorrow. My love is gone. Yet, I feel him near me. Sometimes I can almost see him. At night when the wind blows, I think of what he might have been. Again I wonder: why?"―Margaret Lanterman[src]
Samson "Sam" Lanterman was a lumberjack and volunteer fire chief who was the husband of Margaret Lanterman.
Biography[]
Sam was a third-generation woodsman and the eldest of five brothers. At one time, he was the Packard Sawmill's youngest lumberjack in its history. By the age of fifteen, he competed in lumberjack competitions.[1]
One spring, Lanterman went to Haw's Lumber Yard to drop off lumber he and one of his brothers salvaged from a barn. Seeing Margaret Coulson load up a truck with two-by-sixes for a cabin she was building, he offered his assistance. The pair were immediately smitten with each other and began dating. Exactly a year after they met, Sam proposed to Margaret near Glastonbury Grove. She accepted and they set their wedding date for a year after that.[1]
Sam and Margaret were married in a small ceremony at the Chapel-in-the-Woods, with Sam's family and close friends in attendance. A thunderstorm brewed during the ceremony and an alarm sounded during the reception, alerting the town to a forest fire started by a bolt of lightning. Sam hurriedly left his reception to help put out the fire alongside his father and brothers.[1]
While fighting the fire, a gust of wind fatally pushed Sam off of a ridge and into a burning ravine.[1] Sarah Palmer would later recall to her daughter that Sam instead tripped over a root and fell face-first onto hot coals, burning to death.[2] The blaze's only casualty, his body was later recovered and buried by Margaret two days later behind the cabin they had been building for six months.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
While The Secret History of Twin Peaks states that Sam's body was recovered and buried, the Log Lady introduction for "Episode 28" implies that he was cremated.
Appearances[]
- Twin Peaks Collectible CardArt (Mentioned only)
- The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer (Mentioned only)
- Twin Peaks – season 1
- "Episode 5" (Mentioned only)
- Twin Peaks – season 2
- "Episode 24" (Mentioned only)
- "Episode 29" (Mentioned only)
- The Secret History of Twin Peaks (Mentioned only)