The doors at the Mustang Ranch, a brothel in Storey County, were closed for more than a year. Nightclubs and brothels were among the very last phase of Nevada's reopening plan.
"To watch industries like massage parlors and tattoo shops and things like that reopen, and we were unable to, that was a little difficult to watch," said General Manager Katie Van Lier. "It was devastating for everyone. We did our best to keep as many employed as we could, we brought employees back on that had a hard time getting unemployment, but it was pretty hard on all of us."
Through it all, the Mustang's Madame was still on the job.
"Even though our doors are closed, my phone doesn't get turned off," said Tara Adkins. "If a lady needs something, she's going to call and reach out."
Adkins says there were problems with unemployment, housing issues, and for some, a slide back into a dangerous world.
"Unfortunately, it did push a lot of girls to go back into the illegal world," she said. "You can only have your savings last so long when you're trying to pay rent and put food on the table. A lot of our girls have children and it pushed a lot of our girls to do illegal stuff."
She says it's experience with that world that brought some of the women to the Mustang Ranch in the first place.
"We're safe here," Adkins said. "We have 24-hour security here. The ladies have doctor visits, they get checked weekly. They have work cards, we do FBI background checks. There's so much that goes into this brothel, it's so much different than than a hotel room. You don't have any safety there, you don't know who you're going to run into, you don't know if there's someone hiding under the bed with another person in the bathroom, if you're going to be hurt, and that's exactly what happened."
And, ultimately, what brought them back.
"These ladies believe in the legal industry and that's why they came back immediately when we opened our doors," Adkins said. "They want to be under protection, they want to be safe. They're caregivers; they want to do what they want to do and they want to do it safely."
Now, most of the employees have returned - and a lot of the customers, too.
"It was a busy time in May and all through the summer because they were so happy our doors were open," Adkins said. "It's about that human touch."
Safety protocols remain in place, with around-the-clock housekeeping.
"We still take temperatures out at the gate, we require everybody to wear masks, we've added hand sanitizing stations," Van Lier said. "But in general, housekeeping has always been our largest support staff here and so we've always been very clean. We take sanitation very seriously here."
It's as back to normal as it can be right now.
"I would say we're thriving," Van Lier said. "I was worried about what it would look like when it reopened, but as far as the public goes, everybody is excited to be here and everybody seems to be very comfortable with the safety measures we've put in place."
