This cake box was tucked away in the attic of the Buck Ranch House at South Llano River State Park in Junction.

What’s it for?

Homemakers used cake boxes to keep baked goods fresh and to keep vermin and pests out. Bakeries also used them as store displays.

Cake boxes were often made of metal, wood, or pottery.

Schepp’s manufactured this tin cake box. It features lithographs of classical artwork and poetry by famous German poets Goethe and Schiller. Its dimensions are 14.5 inches tall, 11.5 inches deep, and 13.25 inches wide.

Who used this cake box?

Walter White Buck, a retired jeweler from Hillsboro, bought the property in 1910. He was looking for a drier climate for his oldest son, Stroud, who had tuberculosis. The Buck family moved to the new ranch by wagon.

Walter Buck, Jr. donated the family ranch to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in 1977 and it opened as a state park in 1990.

Could the Buck family have brought this cake box on their journey to their new home in the Hill Country? We don’t know for sure, but it’s fun to speculate!