How a cabin built in State College ended up in Wyoming and fulfilled a decadeslong dream

Brent Pasquinelli isn’t a professional woodworker — it’s more of a hobby, he said. It’s something the 70-year-old State College resident said he’s “practiced” for the past 35 years, fixing up his house.

But despite not having an extensive background in the craft, Pasquinelli has spent the last few decades with a dream: He wanted to build his own cabin in a remote location, surrounded by nature.

In 2019, Pasquinelli put that dream into action. Now, as 2020 comes to a close — with a cabin he built in sections from his Shingletown Road barn and reconstructed in Wyoming — he’s nearly finished.

“This has been somewhat of a fanatical obsession of mine for some time,” he said. “I spent years planning this, I spent years trying to figure out a way to get this done.”

The adventure came with its own set of unique challenges. Pasquinelli described how he’d taken decades to scout the perfect location for his cabin, and finally found it in a five-acre property in Dubois, Wyoming.

It was difficult to coordinate trucks to get the cabin materials out there, he said, due to no running water or electricity, on top of a pandemic.

But the cabin’s location, set right up against 2.5 million acres of national forest, was exactly the “natural” feel Pasquinelli said inspired him to start the project in the first place.

“It’s a very natural setting that has an abundance of wildlife: elk, mule, deer, antelope, coyotes, bulls, also very active in that area (are) osprey, golden eagles, bald eagles. You name it, it’s there,” he said.

After finding his ideal location, Pasquinelli started building the cabin and its furniture inside his Shingletown Road barn.

He built the 800-square-foot cabin in sections, he said, so that way the building could be labeled, taken apart and shipped to Wyoming for easier construction once on site. The structure was built with antique wood, he said, some from his own barn and others from other suppliers in Centre County.

Between his full-time job as finance director for Congressman Glenn Thompson, Pasquinelli took nine months to finish building the cabin inside his barn.

“Any spare moment I had in the evening or the weekends I spent up at the barn,” he said.

And once he’d secured the location and the cabin was finished, it was time to label each individual piece and dismantle the cabin — a process Pasquinelli said was harder than putting it together.

Once taken apart, each element of the cabin was wrapped in cellophane for protection — everything from the glass windows to the beams, the largest of which was 26 feet long. Together, the cabin weighed 21 tons.

And after loading the supplies onto 18-wheelers to be carried from Pennsylvania to Wyoming, the supplies were offloaded onto smaller trucks that made their way to the site of the cabin in August, where a foundation had already been set.

“We just simply looked at our diagram and looked at the coding, and we were able to get the right section and put it in place. And it went quite rapidly,” Pasquinelli said.

“Quite rapidly” equated to ten days of work in Wyoming with a team of 12-14 people — friends who traveled from all over the country to help Pasquinelli fulfill his dream.

One of those friends was former State College resident William Alcorn, who worked with Pasquinelli for a decade.

Alcorn, 53, said he knew about his friend’s dream, but when Pasquinelli proposed the plan to him, Alcorn had his doubts.

“Everybody was given a couple of chances to say, you’re in, you’re out ... along the way, but at the time ... would I get behind this? Sure,” Alcorn said. “But, you know, that’s like, ‘Hey ... I’m thinking about making a spaceship out of my car.’”

Still, Alcorn supported the idea. He helped Pasquinelli invest in the cabin, and when the pieces started to fall together, Alcorn and his family made the trip to Wyoming to help with the build.

Abby Yancy, 22, of Homer City, also helped assemble the cabin. Her grandfather and Pasquinelli are good friends, she said.

“The main goal of Brent’s, I know for sure, and everyone’s there, was for everyone to use our own strength and our own knowledge to put this together,” Yancy said.

Now that the cabin is nearing completion — waiting for electricity and plumbing — and a decadeslong dream is almost fulfilled, Pasquinelli said he isn’t sad.

He said he’s gained a lot of valuable experiences along the way, and he’s looking forward to sharing the finished product with his friends and family.

“I’ve learned a little bit about myself, I’ve learned a little bit about my friends and how good they are, my family, the greatest source of satisfaction, for me, is to see how my kids and my grandchildren are very excited about being part of its beginning this summer,” he said.

Reflecting on the adventure, Pasquinelli said there were definite “risks” associated with the project. The risk of failure, for one, he said, in addition to risk of injury because of his age.

But no matter a person’s age, Pasquinelli said, “you can make dreams happen.”

“You can push through any challenge, any adversity if you put your mind to it, if you’re focused on it,” he said.

This story was originally published December 29, 2020 at 7:00 AM.