Old Geiger Grade

Image from the Keck Museum website.

As a part of my fellowship, I have been asked to create a piece inspired by a location on campus. The University of Nevada, Reno has a number of working museums on campus, and I was particularly drawn to the Keck Museum. The Keck Museum is the second oldest museum in Nevada. It is a beautiful space that melds the past with the future. The original structure remains intact and the displays are also presented as a mix of old and new.  It features a spectacular mineral and gem collection, the Mackay family silver collection, fossils, and many mining artifacts and historical information. There is even some Frank Lloyd Wright furniture tucked away in one of the study rooms.

I was drawn to the mining history for many reasons. The first being that since I am so new to the area, I was anxious to learn a bit more about the history of Nevada. And of course, mining is a huge part of that history. I had also just completed a project based on one of Pennsylvania's coal mining towns, Centralia. And finally, one of the first places I fell in love with here in Nevada was in fact Geiger Grade. 

This is one of the views from Geiger Grade Road. You can see a portion of the road in the image.

Geiger Grade offers breathtaking views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the city of Reno. It is one of the first places we visited. We immediately said some day we would love to live on this road. It is rooted in Comstock history. The original road was established in 1862 and was used to transport goods and materials in and out of Virginia City. Because it was the only road connecting what is now Reno, it was also used to transport passengers. 

The terrain is steep and from what I am told, many of the Reno folks and out of town visitors avoid this road because of the grade. The original road was rutted, mountainous, rocky dirt. And to traverse it in a stagecoach must have been terrifying! Of course now it is a paved road, but I think that perhaps some folks are still frightened by it. 

I was interested in the history of this road and how it really was the main artery into Virginia City.  Sadly, I couldn't locate much information beyond the basics (when it was constructed and who was responsible) and I spent a considerable amount of time talking with research librarians, examining what was available in Special Collections, and at the historical society. So in creating the piece for the Black Rock Press, I had to re-imagine how I was going to approach the piece and Geiger Grade. I have a tendency to focus on the untold stories and try to utilize the historical information in my piece, but with this one there wasn't much to draw from. 

The finished piece will include text that details what I imagine it would have been like to travel in a stagecoach on Geiger Grade. The piece will feature raised surfaces, cut away portions, and printed topographic lines with the curvy road. 

Here are a few images of the first mock up. ​

Of course after creating this mock up I made a great deal of changes. Here is the mock up utilizing the actual paper I will work with, Rives BFK, and with the adjustments in the cut outs, road and topographic lines. 

This week, I have begun printing. The printing will take a minimum of 32 press runs. First, the topographic lines will be printed, followed by the road and finally the text. I hope to set the type using what we have in the studio, but this is dependent on if what we have will actually fit as I have designed it. 

Here are a few images from the printing.