KITSAULT, British Columbia, July 30 (UPI) -- A Virginia businessman says he has big plans for Kitsault, an old mining town in Canada some 500 miles northwest of Vancouver, British Columbia.
Krishnan Suthanthiran bought the ghost town -- abandoned by more than 20 years ago -- sight unseen for $5.7 million after reading about it in a newspaper, the Washington Post reported Saturday.
Suthanthiran said his town could become an eco-tourist destination, an artist's colony, a conference center, a corporate retreat, a movie set or a recreational center for skiing and hiking.
Suthanthiran -- who was born in India and made his fortune selling medical devices and real estate -- said he wanted the town because, "one, it is beautiful up there, and two, I couldn't believe it wasn't being used."
In the 1970s, Amax of Canada created a modern, planned community to house 1,200 molybdenum miners and their families, complete with schools, stores and recreational facilities. When the price fell for molybdenum -- a metal used to harden steel -- the town was abandoned.
