The curious marveled at the little cabin outside the Casper Events Center on Saturday.

They liked the wood exterior and the deck, the fireplace, the kids' bunk beds, kitchen and bath. Some even asked about financing for the cute, upscale, 29-foot-long "park model" recreational home by the Mills-based Teton Buildings LLC.

Teton Buildings President Chris Braun liked what they liked, because he doesn't like what would happen if they didn't.

For Teton Buildings, which makes oil field housing and other equipment, the recreational home is a matter of business diversification or death, Braun said at the annual Home and Garden Show sponsored by the Central Wyoming Home Builders Association. The event continues today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"We're going to come out stronger," Braun said. "We'll still be supporting the oil industry, but we'll also be supporting (recreationists)."

No, Teton Buildings is not the same or related to the late, storied Teton Homes, he told potential customers.

The manufacturer of luxury travel trailers popular with Hollywood stars and African nobility went out of business late last year after the Massachusetts-based Webster Capital Investment Co. defaulted on an $8 million loan from First Zions National Bank. In October, the bank bought the $6.5 million worth of Teton Homes equipment for $1 million at a sheriff's auction.

Braun, a former officer at Teton Homes, and other investors bought the equipment and began Teton Buildings with a concentration on oil field structures, he said.

In October, Teton Buildings had enough business lined up to last until April, Braun said.

That crashed along with the price of oil from $147 a barrel last summer to mid-$50s in November, which led to the company laying off about 160 of its 180 employees, he said.

Without something else, the remaining 20 would be out of work, too, Braun said.

The oil price crash kicked the idea of manufacturing recreation homes from theory to reality real fast, he said.

So with the assistance of the company's in-house engineering and some other designers, Teton Buildings cranked out its first park model - the "Windriver" - in three weeks just in time for the Home and Garden Show, he said.

They are built on 10-inch I-beams and have axles, but unlike motor homes, Teton Buildings' cabins don't have holding tanks for wastewater, Braun said.

The company will offer more than a dozen other models ranging from the 16-foot "Pathfinder" for about $19,000, to the 56-foot "Bighorn" starting at $88,450, Braun said. Prices will vary based on the various appointments requested by customers, he added.

A dozen people on Friday had spoken with Scott Backstrom, who works for a California firm that sells and finances recreational vehicles. "Some guys are ready; some guys are waiting for their houses to sell."

The prospective customers who toured the Windriver liked what they saw.

"It's very appealing as far as the craftsmanship is concerned," Kevin Miller said.

Sylvia Brite considered buying one for a home adjacent to her double-wide trailer that is a day care, she said.

And Lisa Malek said her son is getting married and would like a house.

For Malek and other potential buyers, the economy is as much a concern as for Braun.

Malek's son, Robert Cruickshank, has a trenching company that's been hit by the energy price downturn, she said. "With the way things are with the economy, they wanted to build a house, but this would be cheaper."

While they're billed as a building for the lake or mountain, Braun said others besides Malek eyed the cabins as permanent shelters.

This alternative thinking about housing reflected some of the minor economic angst and larger optimism with other customers and vendors at the Home and Garden Show.

During a break from their jobs as models soaking in hot tubs sold by Porter's Mountain View Supply, Rylee Watson and Beth Stange said people did not seem as willing to buy spas compared to previous years, but they did express a greater interest in stoves for home heating.

Gary Trapkus, a vice president at Hilltop Bank, said vendors have told him the attendance this year appeared less than previous years, but those who attended seemed more serious about buying.

Lisa and Gary Crandall, co-owners of Vivi Artist's Choice Gallery, said their business was great this year.

Unlike heating, ventilation, roofing and other home necessities, art is generally considered to be nonessential, Gary said.

"You would think that it would be one of the first things that would be shed," he said.

But people came from as far as Saratoga, Rawlins and Gillette to buy, and no one has groused about the economy and asked for a better price, Crandall said.

"I'm very pleasantly surprised," he said. "It's just been life as normal."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at tom.morton@trib.com.