House of the Week: A Wooden Castle in Canada's Great Bear Rainforest

Wall Street Journal

04-04-2025

Wolfgang von der Burg, his wife, Gabriele, and son, Philip, were looking for a place where they could all live together when they found 130 acres of land on a peninsula in British Columbia. Over the next 14 years, they built a luxury resort with a handcrafted wooden castle made from hand-selected old-growth red and yellow cedar logs, while also installing power and water.
Philip, 40, had been organizing shows and theater events when the family decided to purchase the property in Terrace, which is roughly 824 miles northwest of Vancouver. They were drawn to its natural beauty, says Wolfgang, a medical director and medical scientist, as well as the crystal clear waters of the Skeena River, which winds around the peninsula and is known for salmon and steelhead fishing.
They paid $1 million CAN for the land, and built a small cabin on it in 2011. They then spent the next decade and a total of $16.5 million CAN constructing the main house.
The Twisted Carrot Entrance, as the owners call it, features three giant twisted Red Cedar trees and a large, straight tree. There are Brazilian Blue Azul granite slab and Black Galaxy granite tile floors throughout and an 11th-century stone fireplace.
A forked owl tree with an abandoned owl's nest and an owl carving supports the staircase to the upper living section.
The von der Burgs live in the house full time and also use it as a hotel in order to qualify under the province's Entrepreneur Immigration program, which grants residency to international entrepreneurs who set up businesses within British Columbia.
They named their estate Little Wolf Resort, charging $850 CAN a night. They are selling the property as a private residence, but it could also be operated as a hotel.
While Canada has a ban on foreign ownership of residential property, this property is a hotel so it's exempt from the ban. Americans can buy it, live there and use it as a commercial venture, says Annette Cosens, a real-estate agent at Sotheby's International Realty Canada in Kelowna, British Columbia. Cosens, who has the listing, says she's had a lot of interest from U.S. buyers. 'I think it's the escape value,' she says.
Running a hotel has turned out to be more work than they expected, and they want to move on to do other things, says Wolfgang, 78. 'It's a demanding business,' he says. He and Gabriele, 74, want to travel more around the world, while Philip, who isn't married, is interested in returning to working in arts administration, either in Los Angeles or Vancouver.
In Terrace, there were 274 properties sold in 2024 worth $120.1 CAN million compared with 2023's 271 properties worth $116.2 million CAN, according to the BC Northern Real Estate Board. Of the 140 single-family homes that changed hands, half sold for less than $519,500 CAN. In addition, 16 parcels of vacant land, 27 homes on acreage, 25 manufactured homes in parks and 17 manufactured homes on land sold in 2024.
As of December 31st, there were 121 properties of all types available in the Terrace area, down from the 137 properties available at December 31, 2023.
Write to Nancy Keates at [e-mail]