30 Mar NOMADIC SHACK takes the cover of Sporting Classics Lifestyle issue – Named Dream Home for the Sportsman
Creating remote luxury in only two months’ time sounds like an exercise in insanity. Not so in the case of this family-run operation in Jordan, Minnesota. Driven by backcountry challenge, the Nomadic Shack team brings prove design, logistical expertise, a 15-year history in commercial building with a wickedly unexpected bonus – they’re also hunters and hoarders of reclaimed materials.
Case in point: The Saskatchewan lodge pictured on the cover was built in a warehouse. In Minnesota. In just 45 days. And then the team carefully dissembled and shipped the entire home in five sections to the Middle-of-Nowhere, Canada, on low-boy specialty trailers.
It’s definitely not your average cabin, but this isn’t your average builder, either. Armed with construction know-how and logistical team that can get anything anywhere, the final trek to the home site included a mile-long stretch of rugged, two-track dirt road. The building’s new location overlooks a roosting area filled with thousands of cranes, geese, and ducks as they migrate from their Arctic breeding grounds to warmer climes in the south.
From the get-go, the building process seemed impossible. For 25 years Nomadic Shack’s clients had watched sunsets and shared hunting stories from this very rise, dreaming of one day building a home here. Problem was, they couldn’t find a team who could pull off such a feat in this remote a location. To make matters even more difficult, the owners needed the lodge completed in time for waterfowl season.
Knowing the typical build process wouldn’t work, they approached Nomadic Shack. Determined to make the deadline, the Nomadic Shack team knew they also needed to craft a home that would do justice to such an epic location.
The lodge sections arrived at the sire after a four-day overland journey. Unlike other modular homes that claim to be assembles in a week but actually require finishing over a period of a few months, this unit was fully competed in just seven days. That included adding the roofs, building the decks, and decorating the interiors.
These “shacks” as they’re called, combine straight-line, modern design with reclaimed corral and fence wood for a new twist on the tradition log cabin. The interiors boast Subzero and Wolf appliances, in-floor radiant heat, and Marvin windows. This particular unit sleeps ten, with two master suites, a queen bedroom, the bunk room sleeps four in beds made of 8×8-foot reclaimed timbers, plush, custom, extra-long mattresses, personal electronic charging station, and privacy curtains. For storage, each guest gets an armoire to accommodate large bags, builtin drawers for smaller articles, and hand-forged hooks to hang gear up and out of sight.
Despite being designed for transport, a Nomadic Shack is anything but light or flimsy. In fact, each section is 46,000 pounds. With impressive amounts of Cambria Quartz (another family-owned, USA-made Minnesota business), natural stone pervades. The kitchen features a 21/2-inch, chiseled-edge island, and most furniture pieces have quartz tops. The three all-stone showers are built from oversized, vertically placed slabs.
No detail has been overlooked. The shack’s main walkway is lit with a translucent Cambria concept color for a warmer feel. The fixtures were crafted by New York-based accessory designer Beningo Aguilar. They’re hung with vintage, reclaimed bolts, backlit, and transported hanging from the ceiling without a single crack or shift in placement.
Via Nomadic Shack’s concierge service, every feature—both wanted and needed—was included to run a fully operational, remote waterfowl camp. The beds feature fine linens embroidered with logos of the new lodge brand, engraved glassware, dishes, artwork, furnishings, and accessories all set in perfect place. On the coffee table sits a branded, handmade leather guest book for recording the years of memories with family and friends. Utilities and a security system are fully operational, and an online music service plays the owner’s favorite songs as he drives up to a lodge that wasn’t there a week prior.
In just 60 days from the project’s start, the Nomadic Shack team handed over the keys to a fully completed, extremely well-appointed hunting lodge. But that’s not the most impressive aspect. The sense of community on the Shack’s first night was truly palpable, as the home filled with local farmers and longtime hunting friends who’d come to welcome their new neighbors. The town had come out daily to watch the process. What they had once doubted they now celebrated. And just in time for the most important day of all: the waterfowl season opener.
Visit www.nomadicshack.com for other Nomadic Shack models, or email luke@nomadicshack.com or call 651.895.2826.