Sandakan's Agnes Keith House will be promoted as 'Dark Tourism'

 

SANDAKAN: The Agnes Keith House here will be developed as a "Dark Tourism" product.

Sabah Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Jafry Ariffin said the state Museum Department through the E-Seram programme will be undertaking the planning.

Dark tourism is a product that involves travelling to places associated with death and suffering.

The programme will give visitors the opportunity to spend a night at the house to experience for themselves the life of the famous American writer, Agnes Newton Keith, her husband, Harry Keith and their son, George, he said.

However, the programme had to be postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic that hit the world since last year.

He added that there were many locations in Sabah that have a history of war, destruction or tragedy that could be developed as a tourist attraction.

"Perhaps many do not know that the mansion on the hill holds a mystery," Jafry quipped.

Among Agnes' notes include experiences of horror she often went through during her stay in the house.

Agnes wrote: "I don't believe in ghosts. But every day I see a tall woman saying goodbye to her husband, picking up her baby and going down the street alone, standing at the end of the street and looking back."

A maid who worked in the mansion when Tom Bayles lived there from 1967 to 1968 saw a woman standing on the steps.

Many more notes in the form of articles were also displayed in one corner of the house which narrated the horror incident experienced by its occupants.

It proves that despite its uniqueness as well as its history, the Agnes Keith House also holds a paranormal mystery that would make it interesting to visit.

-nst online.