Online Nevada Encyclopedia

George Wingfield

Silver Bow

Rich silver deposits were located in the southern Kawich Range of Nye County in November 1904. When prominent Nevadans George Wingfield and George Nixon became involved, people flocked to the newly founded town of Silver Bow. By spring 1905, more than 300 people were living there.

Riverside Hotel

The Riverside Hotel has been a fixture of the Reno community and skyline for 130 years. The Lake House was the first structure on this spot along Virginia Street just south of the Truckee River. Myron C. Lake built the lodging and resting place in 1870. Lake had purchased the land and adjacent bridge crossing from Charles W. Fuller nine years earlier.

Nathan Abelman

Nathan "Nick" Abelman was born in 1875 or 1876 to Yiddish-speaking parents and with various partners owned saloons in Bessemer, Michigan, and Hurley, Wisconsin, before joining the rush to Goldfield in 1906. There, also with a partner, he operated the Bon Ton saloon and also 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.

Goldfield Hotel

The Goldfield Hotel was built in the boomtown of Goldfield, Nevada. The hotel was constructed at the site where two previous wooden hotels had stood. Both the earlier hotels burned down in major fires in 1905 and 1906.

Goldfield

The last gold rush in the West began with a discovery around 1900 by the great Shoshone prospector Tom Fisherman. Two young Tonopah roustabouts, Harry Stimler and William Marsh, followed him to the site and staked claims in late 1902. They continued to work these claims sporadically over the ensuing months, occasionally joined by other prospectors.

Cole-Malley Embezzlement

In perhaps the largest and best-known political and financial scandal in Nevada history—State Treasurer Ed Malley and State Controller George Cole embezzled $516,322.16 from the state treasury in the 1920s. With the assistance of a cashier of the Carson Valley Bank, the two began to divert state funds for their own benefit in 1919. With this money, they invested in Tonopah mining stocks and Signal Hill Oil Company. The oil wells came up dry, so the money was lost.

Bertha Ronzone

Bertha Bishop Ronzone presided over what was once the largest, privately-owned chain of department stores in Nevada. Born in Iowa on April 16, 1885, Bishop moved with her family to California when she was a child. In 1901, at age sixteen, she married Attilio "Ben" Ronzone, a gold prospector. The Ronzones relocated to Alaska where they spent two years. By 1903, the news of mineral strikes in Nevada reached the couple.

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