How the mayor of the smallest city in the world lives

Elsie Eiler, an 84-year-old woman, was elected mayor of Monowi, Nebraska (USA), with 100% of the votes. She also pays a tax equivalent to the IPTU (Imposto Predial e Territorial Urbano) on time and without discount to the city’s tax department, which she manages. Another municipal department, responsible for selling alcoholic beverages, also released Mrs. Elsie to drink whatever she wanted, even on the street, a rare thing in the United States. The manager of this department is… Miss Elsie. This somewhat crazy story has a simple explanation: Elsie Eiler is the only resident of Monowi, which, as you can see, rather than being boring, has its advantages.

O incredible.club brings this different story of small town America and its unique and proud inhabitant.

Located in northern Nebraska, the town of Monowi began to ‘depopulate’ in the 1960s. The post office closed and several stores began to close their doors. And, in 1974, the last student completed the course at the local school.

The only inhabitant of the town, Elsie has a son and a daughter who, for obvious reasons, haven’t lived in Monowi for many years. When her husband, Rudy, died in 2004, it fell to her to take over not only the family bar (which they have owned since 1971) but also the entire administration of the city. Dona Elsie, in addition to being mayor, is the finance secretary, manager of the library and responsible for everything there. In her bar, one of the signs informs: “The world famous Monowi tavern. The coldest beer in town!”

Every year, Elsie announces the mayoral elections on a board. And, of course, she votes for herself. His job duties include, for example, drawing up and updating a city street map, securing a state grant, and keeping an up-to-date land register in case someone else wants to move to Manowi and buy one of these someday. land. Every year Miss Elsie (or, rather, Mayor Elsie) charges herself $500 in taxes. This amount is enough to cover expenses with lighting and water distribution in the city.

In addition to the already mentioned bar, there is a library in the city with about 5 thousand books that were collected by Rudy when he was still alive. Dona Elsie’s nephews and grandchildren cleaned up the space, installing lighting and shelves for the collection. Anyone who goes to Monowi can search the library. The key is in a clearly visible place.

Elsie lives in a trailer not far from her bar. The remains of formerly occupied buildings in the streets that are now deserted are very deteriorated. The old church, for example, serves as a warehouse for tractor tires and the elevator is about to fall out.

Every morning, promptly at 9 am, Elsie opens the bar. It has some regulars who, of course, are not locals, but who live about 50 kilometers from Monowi. In addition, the establishment usually receives well-known truck drivers who deviate from their routes to say hello to Elsie and share their stories and their receptivity.

“We are one big family,” she says. Some customers are fourth or fifth generation patrons. “It’s touching when a customer I met as a child, bringing their children, walks through the door of the bar”. The bar looks like an ordinary house. People come in, chat, play cards, do crosswords and write about things in life on a blackboard placed on one of the walls.

In 2004, when Rudy died and Elsie became Monowi’s only resident, the case gained a lot of press. Therefore, the city ended up becoming famous and began to receive tourists from all over the world. Elsie has four guestbooks, all filled with comments.

“I know I can go live with my children and grandchildren whenever I want. But I prefer to stay here. It’s where my heart is”, says owner Elsie, while preparing hot dogs for her guests.