CASPER - John Huff has a business and a passion, and both are coming together in impressive ways on Casper's West Yellowstone Highway.

The business is Sound and Cellular - once a modest car stereo business and now a key provider of satellite-based communication services to energy businesses in the Rocky Mountains. Sound and Cellular is a blend of high-tech computers and alpha geeks, welders and mechanics, who provide robust phone, cellular and Internet service to the remotest corners of the West.

Like Topsie, Sound and Cellular just growed, from car stereo installation to an intercom system for a man camp, to cellular and then satellite phones and a full-fledged communications network driven off of geosynchronous satellites and satellite dishes perched on rugged trailers.

"Encana just asked us to provide phone, television and Internet service to a 350-person man camp," said Huff, as he opened up steel shipping container, now converted into a master communications hub for the Encana man camp. "Sort of like meeting all the communication needs of a small town," he added.

His crew is wiring that man camp, all of which will connect to the hub, providing individual phone numbers, 40 channels of television and broadband satellite Internet connections via a Teleport satellite.

Elsewhere in the remotest reaches of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, are Sound and Cellular satellite dish trailers. Huff retains his own team of welders, who make the trailers - the only ones that can stand up to back road punishment. Computer wizards design and maintain self-contained packages of phone lines, Internet access, backup batteries and a Cisco firewall. Altogether, Huff has 32 employees in a fleet of red pickup trucks, with the most intense activity in the Pinedale Anticline and Jonah Field areas.



Muscle car passion

Huff's passion is focused on 1970-vintage muscle cars - about two dozen of them. He's got a nicely equipped garage where he and friends work on restoring cars to their former glories. A canary-yellow Baracuda is up on the rack, and there are engines and transmissions in various states of repair on nearby shelves.

"I thought about turning it into a business, but decided against that, 'cause then it wouldn't be fun," Huff grinned.

Down the street, toward Casper's downtown, is the old Tripeny Motors building, now undergoing a massive restoration, courtesy of John Huff.

The vibe for the building's restoration is straight out of Disney's animated movie "Cars," something Huff confesses to watching a hundred times with his kids. "Cars"' Radiator Springs has a strong echo at Tripeny Motors, with sweeping curves and big windows in the old show room.

Huff said he was lucky enough to hire masonry, stucco and glass masters, who have collaborated with him in bringing his vision to life. "These guys are all old school," said Huff, using construction methods from the 50's. The Clamp masonry crew didn't like how the sweeping curves of the Tripeny building abruptly ended in squared-off garage doors, so with Huff's blessing, the curve and sweep of glass, stucco and brick continues.



Collaborative efforts

The Tripeny Motors restoration has been a collaborative effort, said Huff.

"The guys were telling me this is the first time anyone's asked their opinion," said Huff.

Inside the building is plenty of room for Huff's restored cars to be displayed, but his thinking about the building has expanded beyond having a car museum.

"I'm looking at something more multiple-use right now," Huff said. A nearby building has storage space for his cars, so the Tripeny building will be able to host receptions, parties and host car club shows. There's room for a small coffee shop or café, and the parking lot out front can become a plaza for parties and special events.

Huff's Sound and Cellular business and the Tripeny restoration project are smack in the middle of the Old Yellowstone District, located between Poplar and David streets. It was an old industrial storage area that supported the Amoco Refinery, and the main drag for tourists headed for Yellowstone.

The city of Casper has been working on an extensive restoration plan for the area, and has welcomed the efforts of entrepreneurs like Huff.

"We've got grant money to tear up the street, redo the sidewalks, curbs and gutters, bury the power lines and put up decorative lighting fixtures, said Liz Becker, urban renewal coordinator for the city.

"It really is contagious with guys like John Huff helping clean up the neighborhood," she added.



Wyoming Business Report Managing Editor Brodie Farquhar can be reached at brodief@wyoming.com or 307 333-4024.