Gilman, 68, proprietor of the Mustang Ranch. Storey County covers square miles of high desert and sagebrush east of Reno, and Mr. Gilman, an industrial developer originally from San Diego, owns nearly 65 percent of the county.
On that land, Mr. Gilman and his business partner are creating what they bill as the largest industrial park in the world. Already 1, trucks arrive each day to Walmart and PetSmart distribution centers here. And at the edge of all that workaday commerce, just 17 miles from Reno, Mr.
Whether the product is sex, manufacturing or Internet server farms, Mr. Gilman is a free-market kind of guy. Gilman is one of a new breed of brothel owners in Nevada, newcomers who made their fortunes in other industries and who are not afraid of publicity.
He is believed to be the first brothel owner to be elected to public office in the state, and his run made some in the legal sex industry nervous. Still, licensed brothels like the Mustang Ranch enjoy wide support across rural Nevada. More than half those surveyed in a statewide poll in said they thought prostitution should be legal. During his campaign, Mr. Gilman knocked on the doors of some 1, county residents, and he says just two people even mentioned his brothel and only to compliment him.
Prostitution has been a mainstay in Storey County since the discovery of silver ore here in Under state law, counties with fewer than , residents can license brothels, ruling out only Clark County, home to Las Vegas, and Washoe County, which includes Reno. Some 23 legal brothels currently operate in Nevada, though the number fluctuates seasonally.
