FORT ST. JOHN, British Columbia - Despite sub-zero temperatures, few tourists traveling through the fresh snowfall and dwindling hours of daylight in late December, this Alaska Highway town in northeastern British Columbia is booming.

Businesses, many industrial in nature that cater to the community's active oil and gas industry, crowd each other in the limited space fronting the Alaska Highway, which runs through the edge of Fort St. John.

One measure of activity is the traffic at the local Tim Horton's, a Canadian hybrid of Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts and Subway. In Fort St. John, mostly crew-cab, four-wheel drive trucks stream in and out of the parking lot, with spillover parking in the neighboring gas station.

Commercial real estate fronting the Alaska Highway has become scarce in Fort St. John, according to Marlene Furman, who, with her husband Ray, owns a seven-acre recreational vehicle park on the south side of town, adjacent to the primary shipping and visitor industry route connecting Alaska with southern Canada and the Lower 48.

"Fort St. John is such a boom town ... we're right in the heart of the oil and gas activity," Furman said. "Real estate is going through the roof ... my husband has an oil patch supply company that needs to expand, and we're trying to find industrial or commercial land to build on."

In fact, location prompted the Furmans to buy Sourdough Pete's RV Park in June 2002, primarily for the land available along the Alaska Highway. "The RV park is a little side thing. We've never run it ourselves," she said.

Reclassification of residential land for commercial usage in Fort St. John has caused the market to tighten, so city leaders are starting to look at using nearby agricultural land, Furman said. "And we have really viable farming areas here, so we're all stepping on each other's feet."

In recent years, Fort St. John has outgrown its neighbor to the south, Dawson Creek, the official start of the Alaska Highway. Population in Fort St. John is currently about 18,000, while Dawson Creek has about 11,000, Furman said. Just a few years ago, Dawson Creek was the larger of the two, she said. "Our dirty, old oil-patch town has come a long way."

Fort St. John could grow even more, if an Alaska gas pipeline project is ever developed, Furman said. "We would be seeing an awful lot more activity up here."

Off-season and long-term business at the RV park would likely increase, she said. "I definitely see the possible spin-off from the pipeline for us," she said. "It definitely would only do us good, especially if the pipeline runs down the corridor of the Alaska Highway."

Already busy due to increased activity in the northern B.C. oil and gas industry, Fort St. John offers few opportunities for economical lodging, Furman said. Rental costs have increased dramatically and require substantial damage deposits and lead time for notice when vacating, she said.

Comparatively, Sourdough Pete's rents RV spots by the day, allowing flexibility for construction workers who need to move with little advance notice. "For the working men who are hardly at home and only need a place to sleep, staying in their RV is quite comfortable," Furman said. "They save quite a bit on rent ... and if an apartment isn't furnished, they really don't have the time to bother with that."

But winter in northern B.C. provides a substantial challenge to operating the campground year-round for a growing off-season clientele. This winter, 29 RV units and their occupants are staying at the park, a substantial increase from the 18 who stayed at Sourdough Pete's last winter and the 13 who spent the winter of 2002-2003, said manager Sandra Cockwill.

Most of this winter's guests work at the new oriented strand board plant being built in Fort St. John or in the area's oil and gas patch, she said. "Just the diehards stay here through the winter."

As the number of winter residents increases, so does the work to keep running water and free-flowing septic lines. On Dec. 31, Sandra and her husband Bill Cockwill were waiting for a local plumber to thaw a frozen water line in the manager's office and residence.

"The problem is in our trailer. The customers are fine," Bill Cockwill said. "Last year, we were frozen up 11 days."

Heat tape helps to keep water and sewer lines to RV sites open, although that contributes to a hefty increase in monthly utility bills. Monthly power bills range up to $4,000 in winter, almost double the cost for summer usage, according to Furman,

"Everybody has block heaters on their vehicles, and they are using as many extra heaters as possible for their campers," she said. "We give each site an extra slot next to them, so they can plug in ... we don't do much more than break-even in winter."