Elise is also the mayor of Monowi.
Mr. Eiler died in 2004, leaving his wife Elsie Eiler as the only remaining resident.
Eiler’s life as its mayor and sole resident is surreal.
She grants her own liquor licence and elects herself mayor.
Her customers come off the highway that runs through Monowi or from nearby towns.
This town is an extreme example of what has happened across America’s heartland.
The depopulation of the countryside over the last 50 years has been called the largest migration in American history.
Nowhere is that more starkly illustrated than on the Great Plains, which includes Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma.
A 1908 photo of the town of Monowi.
(Rick Wilking / Reuters)
Rudys library(Image:Wikipedia)
[viaReuters,Guardian]
