Nathan "Nick" Abelman was born in 1876 in Chicago of Yiddish-speaking parents and owned a saloon in Bessemer, Michigan, before joining the rush to Goldfield in 1906. There he operated several small clubs and ran an auto livery service. He became well acquainted with Harry Stimler, who is credited with the discovery of gold in the area, and from whom Abelman learned the technicalities of locating mining sites. By 1909 he registered twenty-one mine locations in Esmeralda County.            

 

Abelman relocated to Tonopah in 1913 to manage George Wingfield's Big Casino and Tonopah Club, where he promoted prizefights to attract patrons. Virtually all of Abelman's businesses were partnerships. Once he had established himself as a reputable manager, he made it a matter of principle to obtain controlling interest. Accordingly, Wingfield's Tonopah properties passed to him in 1916, with minority positions held by Wingfield associates James McKay and William Graham.            

 

Abelman's interest in locating and registering mining claims never flagged. He grubstaked dozens of men to work a mining site for a percentage of the profit. In other cases he bought into an established claim. His mining partners called him "Jew Nick." It was a moniker from which he never shrank. He even named two adjacent mining sites "Jew" and "Nick." He personally, or with others, registered hundreds of claims at Weepah, Round Mountain, Manhattan, Bellehelen, Gilbert, Beatty and Rhyolite. A few were multiple and adjacent claims running as large as 180 acres and were so remote that neither the claimant nor the county recorder could determine the mining district in which they were located. His co-ownership of some claims with the legendary Stimler likely increased their value.            

 

Abelman married Audrey Marie Porter in 1921 and moved to Reno after unsuccessful business ventures in California. In 1932 he opened the ornate Ship and Bottle Club, which catered to divorcees availing themselves of the state's new six-week residency requirement. In December, his wife died of pneumonia. Her pallbearers included Wingfield, McKay, Senator Tasker Oddie, and Mayor Edwin E. Roberts. Several years later Nick married divorcee June Pettite, whose sons he adopted.

 

Abelman had arrived in Reno at a time when George Wingfield was in financial trouble and his trusted associates, Graham and McKay, had tarnished reputations. In 1935 Abelman sold the Ship (as it was called) and bought the Riverside Hotel and Casino, while paying rent to Wingfield who owned the building. Under pressure from creditors to liquidate his assets, Wingfield was forced to sell his cherished 640 acre Spanish Springs Ranch, which was held by his Reno Securities Company. In what appears to have been a gentleman's agreement, Abelman was the only bidder. He purchased the entire spread for $3,000 and returned it to Wingfield at an unknown price, when the latter was no longer financially embarrassed.            

 

Over the next decade, Abelman acquired controlling ownership of the Stateline Country Club on the south shore of Lake Tahoe, a twenty-five percent interest in the Christmas Tree Lodge on Mt. Rose Highway, and seventy-five percent of Reno's Waldorf Club. He sold the Riverside business to the Wertheimer brothers in 1949 and planned to build a new casino on North Virginia Street before death took him in 1951.