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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Some houses that sheltered their tenants through frigid winters, battering rains and the best and most bitter times in our city's history may have now seen their saddest hour at the hands of a few thoughtless vandals.

Walls and doors are kicked in, toilets turned to rubble, and windows have been smashed. Yvonne Quick cannot understand why.

A snowy playground for foxes and ptarmigan, Twin Pine Hill offers breathtaking views of Yellowknife and Great Slave Lake. - Jack Danylchuk/NNSL photo

"Why would you break windows in houses that are tidy and clean and livable?" asked Quick, a member of the city's heritage committee.

Two weeks ago, for the second time in five months, homes in the old, vacant Giant Mine town site were hit by vandals.

This time, nine of the town site's 22 houses were damaged in an area the committee is trying to get designated as a heritage site.

The Giant Mine town site has been around since the late 1940s when the opening of Giant Mine brought the next, great gold rush to the city. The town site was built to house mine managers, workers and their families. No one has lived at the site since 2005. Quick said the committee is hoping to someday re-open it to settlement and lease homes out to people who wish to live there. She said the plan is to make the town site a tourist destination.

In a plan submitted to the city on Jan. 8, 2008, one idea discussed for the area is to create a theme that reflects what life was like back in Yellowknife's early days, with houses, vehicles and displays giving off the feeling of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

The city acquired a lease to the town site from the federal government in 2000 to compensate for unpaid property taxes owed by the mine's former owner, Royal Oak. The city wants to refurbish the town site and take advantage of its proximity to Back Bay by developing it into a high-end, residential neighbourhood but are at an impasse over the territorial and federal governments' refusal to clean up the site beyond "industrial standards."

Ray Karu, another member of the committee, said most of the houses that sit in the town site have now been victim to some sort of damage this winter.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem notified the heritage committee upon hearing of the destruction on March 19.

Two of the ransacked homes have been identified as candidates for future heritage status by the committee.

Quick said the kitchen of the mine manager's house was trashed and giant plate glass windows were smashed, while the town site's old post office had its windows broken.

Of the 22 houses in the area, Quick said 16 were considered salvageable two years ago. The rest were slated for demolition. One house – called REC 210 – presently off the demolition list, was extensively damaged inside.

A quick survey of the interior showed a tattered ceiling fan hanging limply, dry-wall kicked in so thoroughly that some walls stood almost bare to their frames, shards of triple-paned glass jutting out from window frames and doors knocked off their hinges.

Karu said appliances like furnaces, driers and dishwashers had been taken from some houses, while Quick said cupboards were torn out and valuable items – like an antique dresser – were vandalized.

"People have no respect for other people's property," she said.

"It's really pathetic when you stop and think."

She estimated repairing the damage will cost $200,000.

Van Tighem said many of the houses that will be saved will need some repairs, so costs will be hard to calculate. He said the majority of the houses may ultimately disappear.

Quick and Karu suspect on this occasion the vandals came by snowmobile, as tracks led up to the buildings.

On Thursday afternoon, Karu and two other men were busy boarding up windows and shovelling glass.

"There's just a mountain of glass," said one of the men, wishing not to be named.

Five houses were hit by vandals in October of last year, said Quick.

Also in May 2006, Yellowknifer reported five houses had been ransacked, with windows smashed and doors kicked in.

Quick said the RCMP had not been contacted about the recent vandalism.

"What is the point?" she asked.

"They were contacted in the first break-in (in the fall)," she said.

"The RCMP caught the kids, but nothing was done."

Van Tighem said a security gate went up on the two roads leading into the site as a result of that incident.

RCMP Const. Kathy Law confirmed three youth were involved in the October incident, but said when investigators combed the scene, it was obvious a lot of damage had been done prior to that.

She said the youth told police they had just thrown rocks through broken window frames.

Law said charging youth is a last resort, and if they have no priors, police usually just go and speak with the parents.

"We spoke with the parents and they were very cooperative and we knew that the parents were going to deal with the situation," she said.

As of Friday morning, the RCMP had yet to hear any public complaint about the most recent trashing of the houses.