By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

CASCO — Sawyer Nelson feels most at home when he is spending time in the forest.

In fact, the 12-year-old Casco resident built a home of sorts in the woods. 

The cabin stands about 5-1/2 feet tall at its highest point. Sawyer had yet to stay the night in the structure this winter, but he plans to do so this summer. 

The amazing things about the cabin are: 1.) It was built without power tools or nails, and 2.) It was built by a pre-teen without any help from anyone else. 

From his family’s home on Quaker Ridge, Sawyer takes about a quarter-mile-long snowmobile ride to a walking trail and then hikes to his ‘home away from home.’ 

“Here is my cabin. This entire thing is [held together by] paracord. There is not one single nail in this cabin, except for the nail that is holding up my pack here,” Sawyer said, pointing to the backpack hanging outside the cabin. 

Paracord is a lightweight nylon rope. 

“I’ve done many projects at this cabin that are simple and fun to do. I’ve learned all of this off of YouTube. Not all of it is just my imagination or whatever,” he said.

Then, he admitted he did come up with the design for his window shutters well after the cabin took shape. Also, he maintains the cabin.

“To keep snow off of the roof for weight purposes, I have built a ladder. I can easily climb onto the roof. I bring a shovel out every once and a while and scoop snow off the roof so it won’t be too much weight. The tarp is temporary. In the spring, I’m gonna remove the tarp, remove all the sticks holding the tarp down, gather moss and put that on the roof. That should waterproof it. The moss on the roof shouldn’t be too much of a project this spring. It should look cool with green on the top,” he said. 

So far, Sawyer has spent approximately 150 hours working on his cabin, and has used 2,000 feet of paracord that was purchased in spools. Another important factor that Sawyer adhered to: the cabin is constructed using only trees that were either blown down or dead standing. 

“I didn’t cut down any live tree. I cut dead standing trees. No, I do not like killing trees because I feel bad,” he said. 

Sawyer attends Lake Region Middle School, where he is in 7th grade. In 2019, his family moved from a home right in town in Bridgton to a home overlooking the mountains on Quaker Ridge Road. 

This fall, starting in mid-October, during every daylight hour he could spare, Sawyer went to his spot in the woods and worked on this project that took on a life of its own.    

“It all just came together. Usually when I do builds like this, it just evolves over time,” he said. “I can guarantee that when I started I never would have imagined it would look like this. This was going to be something simple I was going to spend some time on, nothing really like a long time. And, I never knew it was going to get so much attention.”

To Sawyer’s surprise, the process of building the structure garnered lot of attention on social media. 

“I have I think around 1,500 followers on Instagram,” Sawyer said. “They were really, really interested like as soon as I started the floor. It did not look like anything. They were interested about how it was holding together. I was getting a lot of questions and I enjoy answering them.”

He added that Instagram users familiarwith bushcraft techniques offered advice he was able to use. Bushcraft is defined as the skills to survive in the wilderness. 

Sawyer’s mom Erin talked about the feedback he got on Instagram. 

“The Bushcraft community — they are all just like him. When he had 50 followers, he was so excited. All of a sudden, it just started to grow and everyone who was following him, when we looked at their accounts and their interests, they are exactly like him,” she said. “It is nice that although isolated because of COVID, he has access to other people like him that he can keep in touch with.” 

She talked about how impressed she and Sawyer’s dad Eric have been with their son’s accomplishment.

“He has grown a lot over the last year. He has really matured,” she said.

“I’m a super proud dad,” Eric Nelson said. “Here is a 12-year-old boy who is comfortable working alone, comfortable being in the woods, and finding enjoyment and creating this structure on his own, without any help, completely independent. [He has been] making use of his time during COVID, doing something constructive and not just sitting inside and looking at some sort of screen.”

Eric, who works full-time, said that since October he has been out to his son’s  cabin maybe a half dozen times.

Both Sawyer’s parents are impressed with their son’s commitment to not using any power tools or soliciting any help. Sawyer said his hand tools include a hatchet, a wood axe and a saw.  

Erin said that the family has had a few conversations about what type of occupation might allow Sawyer to be outdoors and use these skills: maybe a game warden or a park ranger.  

“He is definitely a young man who loves to be outside, loves to be out in the woods. He is very independent. He spends a lot of time alone, and enjoys that,” Erin said. 

Sawyer tries to pass on his love of the outdoors with others, whenever he can.  

“I try to encourage other people and other kids to get outside. I know the video game stuff is a lot [of fun]. I encourage other people my age, any age really, to get outside and build something or explore the woods,” he said.