There’s some confusion about the origin of the name Gabbs, in the valley by the same name, in Nye County. One claim is the valley, mountain range and city is name after engineer and Professor E.S. Gabbs. However its more likely named after William More Gabb, a paleontologist and member of a survey team under professor Josiah Dwight Whitney from 1862 to 1867.
Several of his colleagues surveyed and mapped the area now called Gabbs Valley. While never seeing the valley that bears his name, Gabb described fossils collected there.
The first-known use of the name Gabbs Valley appears on a map from 1871. Seven years later, the 39-year-old Gabb, a Philadelphia native died at his home.
Gabbs is also the home of Melvin Dummar, who came to fame because of the so-called, “Mormon Will.” Dummar says his inclusion in Howard Hughes’ will came after he found Hughes, half-dead and laying in the road near Lida Junction, then drove the disoriented billionaire to the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.
Dummar has never been able to prove his claim on the Hughes’ fortune as the courts have ruled the “Mormon Will” a forgery.
Gabbs owes its existence to the discovery of major brucite deposits in Gabbs Valley in the late 1920s. Brucite’s importance wasn’t realized until World War II and the need for magnesium in weapon production.
By the end of 1942, hundreds of workers and their families lived in new town sites named North Gabbs and South Gabbs. The first post office in the Gabbs Valley opened December 3rd, 1942. Initially, named the Toiyabe Post Office; the name changed to Gabbs, June 1st, 1943.
Gabbs gained city status March 29th, 1955, when the area mines were still operating at full capacity. The Nevada State Legislature disincorporated the county’s only city, May 8th, 2001, because Gabbs tax base could no longer sustain its municipal government.
Whether Gabbs becomes a ghost town like so many other mining towns in Nevada’s history, only time will tell.
The Old Blog in the Desert 
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