Carson High School students make cake to honor Nevada State Museum’s 75th anniversary

Working from a photo of the Carson City Mint dated 1866, Carson High School CTE information and media technologies teacher, Sherri Kelley, and her students are designing a 3D replica of the Mint to crown the enormous cake CHS CTE culinary students are baking to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Nevada State Museum, currently housed within the original Mint.

Built in 1863, the Mint produced gold and silver coins for a total of 19 years. In 1941, the building became the permanent home for the Nevada State Museum.

Kelley said the work to create the 3D model is painstaking, drawing the building from the photo on a computer using 3D software, then converting it to be viable on the printer software

“Each printed section is 6-inches square,” she said. “The building is very ornate. There are 16 chimneys that each need to be printed individually, along with the windows, brick panels and cornices that must be glued together to create the structure.”

Makaela Bigley, a senior and fourth year CTE advanced architecture studies student, is helping Kelley to assemble the building.

“It’s really hard aesthetically to make it look right,” Bigley said. “Each piece has to be examined to make sure the ratios are correct.”

Bigley plans on going on to earn her architectural engineering degree, a hybrid between civil engineering and architecture. She hopes to attend either Penn State University or the University of Colorado, Boulder, two of the few universities offering the degree.

“This project has been both challenging and fun,” she said. “Seeing how it all comes together and creating a building piece by piece.”

The cake cutting ceremony begins at 11 a.m. and is open to the public, with Mayor Bob Crowell officiating. McAvoy Layne as Mark Twain and members of the Guild Russell Calhoun family, relatives of Judge Clark Guild who spearheaded the efforts to open the museum in the Mint building, will also be in attendance.