Editing Gabbs, Nevada (section)

==History==
Gabbs was founded ''circa'' December 1941 as a company town for Basic Magnesium, Inc. (BMI), which operated a [[magnesium]] production plant in the area.<ref name="Full1968">{{cite book |last1=Schilling |first1=John |editor1-last=Ridge |editor1-first=John |title=The Gabbs Magnesite-Brucite Deposit, Nye County, Nevada, in Ore deposits of the United States, 1933-1967 |date=1968 |publisher=The American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum engineers, Inc. |location=New York |pages=1607–1622}}</ref> The town grew out of an earlier mining camp named Brucite (after the magnesium oxide [[brucite]] that occurred locally), and took the name of the surrounding [[Gabbs Valley]], itself named after paleontologist [[William Gabb]] (who had studied fossil specimens from the area). [[World War II]] demand for [[magnesium]] fuelled the plant's expansion under the direction of the [[War Production Board]], and policing, a jail, and a school district were established during 1942. Gabbs became a township in June 1943, with a population of 426. Settlements at North Gabbs, South Gabbs, and Tent City (which later largely merged into North Gabbs) were served by a library, city hall, parks, and tennis courts, and a succession of local newspapers. The city [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] on March 29, 1955.<ref>Hall, Shawn ''Preserving the Glory Days: Ghost Towns and Mining Camps of Nye County, Nevada''. University of Nevada Press, 1999, p.16</ref>

[[File:2014-07-28 12 08 05 Entrance to the Premier Magnesium Mine in Gabbs, Nevada.JPG|thumb|left|Mine entrance in Gabbs]]
In September 1944 the original magnesium plant was closed, having produced enough ore to meet targets for the projected duration of the war. The local population initially fell, but revived when a new plant administered by Basic Refractories, Inc., producing magnesium for the private sector, was opened in 1955. The town's population climbed to 796 by 1960.

In 1982 BRI laid off half its 350 workers, prompting the town's population to decline once more. An influx of workers to a gold mine in nearby [[Paradise Peak (Nye County, Nevada)|Paradise Peak]] briefly expanded the population again during the 1980s and 1990s, but this plant too closed in 1994, and in 2001 Gabbs lost its incorporated status.<ref>Marschall, Peter, [http://www.onlinenevada.org/gabbs "Gabbs"], in the ''[http://www.onlinenevada.org Online Nevada Encyclopedia]''. Last updated 2008-01-30.</ref> Today the town retains a high school, stores, and homes.