Picture a village where the mayor approves the liquor license for her own tavern, files the town's taxes for herself, and keeps the library open for visitors. She doesn't have to worry about losing an election, because she's the only voter. That place is real.
Here's the short answer: it's Monowi, in Boyd County, Nebraska, and its sole resident is Elsie Eiler. Monowi made headlines after the 2010 census recorded just one person living there, making it the least populous incorporated village in the United States. Eiler serves as its mayor, clerk, treasurer, and librarian, and she runs the town's only business, the Monowi Tavern.
A Railroad Town on the Plains
Monowi was laid out in 1902, after a railroad reached the area. By tradition, its name means flower in a Native American language, after the wildflowers that grew at the original site. The town also got a post office that year, which stayed open until 1967. The village sits in the far eastern part of Boyd County, on the northern edge of the state.
At its peak in the 1930s, about 150 people lived there. But like many small Great Plains communities, Monowi slowly lost its young people to bigger cities with better jobs. By 1979, only 16 residents remained.
Elsie's Story
Elsie Eiler was born in 1933 and grew up on her parents' farm just north of Monowi. Her mother was born in Nebraska, and her father was an immigrant from Germany. She met her future husband, Rudy, in elementary school, and she got her driver's license at age 9. She graduated from high school in nearby Lynch in 1951. As a young woman she trained at a flight attendant school and worked as an airline reservations agent in Texas while Rudy served in the Air Force in France.
The couple came back and, in 1971, bought the Monowi tavern, reopening it in 1975. By the 2000 census, Elsie and Rudy were the town's only two residents. When Rudy died in 2004, Elsie became Monowi's population of one.
A Library in Rudy's Honor
Rudy loved books and dreamed of a public library. After he died, Elsie opened Rudy's Library in the summer of 2004, a small building filled with thousands of volumes from his collection. Friends, neighbors, and curious travelers drop by to browse.
Her tavern serves passing travelers and tourists, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, she kept it going with to-go orders. As mayor, she even has to submit a yearly road plan to keep state funding for the village's four streetlights.
A Census Puzzle
Eiler has always kept a close eye on the count. After the 1990 census, she noticed Monowi's population had been tallied wrong and contacted radio broadcaster Paul Harvey to get the word out. In 2020, early census figures suggested the population had doubled to two. Eiler insisted nobody had moved in.
She was right. A Census Bureau spokesperson explained that the extra resident came from statistical noise added to protect people's privacy. Monowi isn't completely alone in its tiny status, either. Ruso, North Dakota, also recorded a population of one in the 2020 census.
So if you're ever driving through northern Nebraska, look for the turn to Monowi. The whole town may be just one woman, but by all accounts she keeps a warm welcome waiting.
