This Nebraska Town Once Had 150 People. Now One Woman Runs It Alone

Every morning in Monowi, Elsie Eiler opens the town tavern, prepares food, pours drinks and keeps the books. She also serves as mayor, clerk, treasurer and librarian because she is the only person left in the Nebraska settlement.

Monowi lies five miles from the South Dakota border, reached by a dirt road across the prairie. Street signs, three lampposts and a few battered buildings remain, along with an empty church and the weeds covering former homes. Customers still travel from miles away to visit Eiler's tavern.

The town once supported about 150 people during its railway-era heyday in the 1930s. It had shops, restaurants, a school and a prison. Farming sustained nearby families, while the railway brought people and activity through the community.

Eiler grew up on a farm within walking distance of Monowi and met Rudy, her future husband, at the local one-room schoolhouse. She later worked for an airline in Kansas City and hoped to become a stewardess, but returned because the city did not feel like home. She and Rudy married at 19, raised two children and reopened an old bar once owned by Eiler's father in 1971.

Monowi's decline came gradually. The last funeral in its wooden church took place in 1960, followed by the disappearance of the post office and grocery shops. The school closed in 1974, and Eiler's children left to find work. By 1980, only 18 people remained. Two decades later, Eiler and Rudy were the last residents, continuing to run the tavern as the surrounding buildings emptied.