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In stark contrast
to the American Wild West ghost town image of
dirt roads and crumbling brothels and brew
halls, Kitsault's collection of tidy streets and
manicured lawns hugging the rocky shoreline of a
Canadian fjord is downright suburban.
"It's a modern ghost town," said John Wheatley,
the town's caretaker for almost two decades.
However, more interesting to this neck of the
woods is that this abandoned mining community,
put on the market last fall by a Phoenix-based
copper company, is now owned by someone from
Fairfax County.
Krishnan Suthanthiran, 55, a Springfield
businessman and president of Best Medical
International, a locally based health care
products manufacturer, bought the British
Columbia town last December for something under
its $7 million (Canadian dollars) asking price.
"The fishing is great. And the scenery in
British Columbia is just wonderful," he said.
Right now, Suthanthiran said his plans for the
town are "wide open" but could include
transforming it into either a high-end resort
town, corporate conference facility or movie lot
or simply renovating its homes and reselling
them.
"There will be a day when it will no longer be a
ghost town," he explained.
And what did this Canada-educated businessman,
who first read about the town's sale while
attending a conference in Halifax last
September, get for his money? Well, a town, of
course: 92 single-family homes, 200 apartment
units, a trailer park, a pub, 22,000 square feet
of retail space, two recreation centers and a
nicely equipped hospital.
According to Rudy Nielsen, president of Niho
Land and Cattle Co., who acted as a consultant,
Kitsault's buildings, minus a few leaky roofs,
are in surprisingly usable condition.
"The heat was kept on in the buildings, and the
lawns were maintained," he said. "Some buildings
are deteriorating. But they have been empty for
20 years."
In the early 1980s, a Canadian mining company
built Kitsault about 500 air miles north of
Vancouver to support its employees working at a
nearby molybdenum mine. However, when the mine
shut down after just two years, Kitsault's 1,200
residents left to find work elsewhere.
And in a hurry, evidently.
The town pool is still filled with water, its
library is stocked with books and many of its
homes remain furnished.
"Oh, it was an active town," recalled Wheatley,
who lived in Kitsault before becoming its
caretaker. "It had a volunteer fire department
and curling ice. If you have a fire department,
you're a pretty active town."
Active, yes, but remote, he added.
"It's a three and a half hour drive from the
nearest town. And that's a three and a half hour
drive really gettin' it, too," he said in
describing traveling on the one gravel road into
Kitsault.
In April, Suthanthiran, who acknowledged he will
have his hands full renovating the town, is
traveling to British Columbia to meet with local
developers to discuss Kitsault's transformation.
The first phase of which should be under way
this spring or summer.
"Ultimately, the town will be prosperous,” he
said. “And we want to be the fuel for the fire."
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