Building Three Things at Once

Nate Siegler has wood shavings stuck to his loosely knit beanie as he leads me into his freshly framed future home.

As we walk through, it’s clear he’s been intentional with every decision, from the location to the layout to the materials of the home he and his family will move into in less than a year.

He gestures toward the three-car garage that will double as a home gym and a tune shop for skis and bikes. He opens the front door and enters the dining room, where views of the Gros Ventre Range’s Jackson Peak to the left are only rivaled by the South Teton to the right.

He moves past the fireplace and into the rooms for his two and three-year-old sons, Jax and Nash. They’ll inevitably share many of their firsts in the space. Down the hallway, we end our tour in the master bedroom where Nate and his wife Brooke will end their days watching the sunset or a moose waltz across the manicured lawns of the golf course.

Nate climbs a ladder and shoots a few more nails into the home’s trusses. It’s all a dream now, one he’s imagined over and over. As the day ends, he finishes framing the roof and that dream is closer than ever.

The silver lining of Wyoming's warmest winter on record is that the weather has helped him stay on top of his construction timeline. He’s spent about six days a week leaving his sweat among the sawdust instead of on the slopes.

“It's been a lot of work,” Nate said, “but it's been super rewarding. I mean, today we're starting to see some returns from it.”

Nate’s not only building a home.

He’s building his business, Wild Cargo, and a family. The house can be seen as the culmination of decades spent in the community, drilling through the granite riddled soil to put down roots beneath the rugged Tetons.

“It's been a dream of mine to have a house here,” Nate said, “and we’re very excited and feel very grateful and lucky to be able to do it.”Nate walks into Wild Cargo with his coveralls still on, having come straight from the build.

He shares a laugh about a recent hockey game with Wild Cargo’s general manager Joe Hughes and heads to a backroom to discuss the latest spring shipment with co-owner Blane Woodfin.

Nate and Blane opened the doors to Wild Cargo in 2024. But it had already been years in the making.

They met through their wives years earlier and quickly bonded over their active lifestyles, from skiing and biking in the mountains to swimming and surfing at the beach.

Blane noticed Nate was likeable, well-connected, humble and good at most everything he tries. They began to gravitate toward each other’s similar styles that included brands like Filson and Taylor Stitch.

“We're doing lots of different things every day,” Blane said. “And I think that's a big part of how we dress.”

Now, they’re curating those brands — and others like them — built for quality and made to be worn from the trailhead to town. Clothing that supports a life in Jackson. A life in the mountains.

They’ve never felt a menswear store like that has existed in Jackson and they see Wild Cargo as filling that gap.

“The most core part of Wild Cargo is embodying the Mountain West and this sense of adventure,” Nate said.

And through the risks and challenges of starting a business, bootstrapping everything, they’re starting to feel the pride of building something they can call their own.

One of Wild Cargo’s core values is family. The business wouldn’t have started without it and succeeds because of it.

The Sieglers’ family beginnings can be traced back to Nate and his wife Brooke’s first date shooting guns.

“In my head I was like, ‘I hate shooting guns,’” Brooke said.

But she agreed and Nate had a plan. He picked her up in a side-by-side with mini pumpkins that would later serve as targets in the backseat. They rode to the neighboring national forest where they could watch the sun set behind the Tetons.

It went well, to say the least. About a decade and two kids later they’re preparing to move into their first home.

“I think it's surreal,” Brooke said. “It hasn't really hit me yet.”

For Nate, business success at Wild Cargo means one thing: more time with his family and more time in the mountains.

“A huge part of the dream is buying my time,” Nate said. “It's all about trying to get my time back so that I can enjoy it with my children and my wife and the outdoors.”

Brooke’s favorite thing about him is his patience and big heart. Though he’s building a new business and a new home she says he’s still present with Nash and Jax.

“He's very playful. He loves to do everything with the kids,” Brooke said, “like putting on a dino costume at 7 in the morning and chasing the kids around the house.”

It’s never boring with Nate.

Recently their lives have been full of a lot of changes, uncertainty and stress. Short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.

“I think it's all exciting,” Brooke said. “That's what I try to remind Nate — it’s all positives. It's all for good reasons.”

The future home sits less than a mile from Brooke’s parents. They’ve been a huge support with the home, the business and their kids. Nate and Brooke agree building all at once wouldn’t be possible without them and the rest of their family.

Through the repetitive work on the build, Nate’s imagining the future.

“It’s always in my head, the dream of it is what drives me through long, cold days,” Nate said, “Envisioning the kids and us in this house.”

“I think we’ll look back at it in 10 years and say , ‘yeah, this was all worth it,’” Brooke adds.

Back on-site, Nate lets down the tailgate of his truck and takes a seat.

He’s been spending six days a week at this build. Now, with the roof complete and another milestone under his belt, he’s taking it in.

He expects to be moving in this fall. That’ll be only a year since laying the foundation on his future home, a short two years since doors opened at Wild Cargo and several years since the birth of his two and three-year-old sons.

“It’s been a ton of change,” Nate said. “ But I feel really lucky and quite frankly blessed to be able to do all these things.”

The family, the business and the community he’s built stand in stark contrast to the blank slate of life his 22-year-old self had in front of him when he first stepped foot in the valley.

“I think since then I wanted this place to be home,” Nate said.

He remembers arriving in the dark, having bummed a cross-country ride in his longtime friend’s van in search of bigger mountains. He woke up to the quaking gold leaves of aspen trees along the Snake River and the rugged gray peaks of the Tetons laid against a bright blue skyline.

“When I was younger, it was a pretty selfish endeavor. It was just about having a good time being here, enjoying all the activities and things that this place had to offer. Now, with kids and putting down roots and a business, it's much more about being part of that community,” Nate said.

And that’s why Nate’s staking a claim in the Tetons. He sees the work being put into his business and his home as an investment in that community.

“It's a huge team effort,” Nate said. “And if we are going to succeed and continue to grow, it will always have to be