Town with 1 resident illustrates depopulation of Great Plains

Elsie Eiler, standing, takes orders at the Monowi Tavern (New York Times photo by Alyssa Schukar)

It's only a coincidence that Monowi, Nebraska, looks like it starts with Greek for "one." The name is reportedly a Native American word for "flower," but it's apropos; the town has only one resident.

In pictures and words, Alyssa Schukar of The New York Times paints a haunting, nostalgic portrait of Monowi and its last resident. Elsie Eiler, 88, still runs the Monowi Tavern 12 hours a day except Mondays. It's been in the family since 1971, but since Eiler has no successor, the last business in Monowi will likely shut down when she retires.

"The town continues to exist only because Mrs. Eiler files the required county and state paperwork every year. On top of bartending and cooking, she is the town’s mayor and tax collector," Schukar reports. Eiler told her, "The bar is the town, and I’m the town We’re all so intermeshed, you can’t quite imagine one without the other."

Wikipedia map of Boyd County, adapted

In the meantime, the tavern serves as one of the last gathering places in 550-square-mile Boyd County, one of many Great Plains counties with long-term population loss, Schukar notes: "About 2,000 people still live in the county, down from a peak of 8,800 in 1910."

Schukar explains the decline to urbanites: "Farm sizes have steadily grown in recent years, as larger, more efficient operations became better suited to survive the industry’s shift to a global market. Small family farms — once the backbone of the local economy — had to expand their operations or get out. Many got out. And without a way to make a living, generations of young people left for jobs in cities. Towns and businesses disappeared in their absence."