Monowi ( ) is the smallest incorporated

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the United States by population. It is in

Boyd County, Nebraska Boyd County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,810. Its county seat is Butte. The county was formed in 1891 and named after James E. Boyd, the governor of Nebraska at the time. ...

, United States, and received national and international attention after the 2010 United States census recorded only one resident in the village, Elsie Eiler, who serves as its mayor, librarian, clerk, and treasurer. Although the 2020 census listed Monowi's population as two, this was confirmed to be an example of

differential privacy Differential privacy (DP) is a mathematically rigorous framework for releasing statistical information about datasets while protecting the privacy of individual data subjects. It enables a data holder to share aggregate patterns of the group while ...

in the census data; Eiler remains the town's sole resident. According to tradition, the name "Monowi" means "flower" in an unidentified Native American language. Monowi was named after the many wildflowers growing at the original site of the village.

History

Monowi was

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...

ted in 1903 following the extension of the Mason, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad to the area. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was established in Monowi in 1902 and operated until its closure in 1967. Monowi reached its peak population in the 1930s, when approximately 150 people lived in the village. Like many other small communities in the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

, it lost its younger residents to larger cities that were experiencing growth and offering better employment opportunities. During the 2000 census, the village recorded a total population of two, consisting of a married couple, Rudy and Elsie Eiler. Rudy died in 2004, leaving his wife as the village's sole resident. In this role, she serves as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

and issued herself a

liquor license A liquor license (or liquor licence in most forms of Commonwealth English) is a governmentally issued permit for businesses to sell, manufacture, store, or otherwise use alcoholic beverages. Canada In Canada, liquor licences are issued by the l ...

. She is also required to submit an annual municipal road plan to maintain state funding for the village's four streetlights. Although the village is nearly abandoned, it does have a bar called the Monowi Tavern, operated by Eiler for passing travelers and tourists. She also maintains Rudy's Library, a collection of approximately 5,000 volumes established in memory of her late husband. In 2018, the village was featured in commercials for

Arby's Arby's is an American fast-food restaurant, fast food sandwich restaurant chain with more than 3,300 restaurants. The flagship property of Inspire Brands, it ranked third in systemwide sales in the United States in the quick-service and fast-ca ...

and

Prudential Financial Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American financial services company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both Investor#Retail_investor, retail and institutional cus ...

. The village was also used as a starting place for the biggest advertisement poster in the world, which was finished on June 13, 2018.

Census data

After the 1990 census, Eiler noticed that Monowi's population had been miscounted and contacted radio broadcaster

Paul Harvey Paul Harvey Aurandt (September 4, 1918 – February 28, 2009) was an American radio broadcaster for ABC News Radio. He broadcast ''News and Comment'' on mornings and mid-days on weekdays and at noon on Saturdays and also his famous ''The Rest o ...

to publicize the error. During the 2020 census, preliminary information appeared to show that Monowi's population had increased to two. However, Eiler denied that anyone had moved into the town, and a spokesperson for the United States Census Bureau explained that the alleged second resident was the result of "

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

... add dto the ensusdata," in which some individuals are listed in a bordering tract to protect the anonymity of census respondents.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all land. The village is located in the far eastern portion of Boyd County, in the northeastern region of Nebraska. It is located between the

Niobrara River The Niobrara River (; , , literally "water spread-out horizontal-the" or "The Wide-Spreading Water") is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. Many early settlers, such as Mari Sandoz, referred to the rive ...

and the larger

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

. The nearest community to Monowi is

Lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica * Lynch's Crater, Queensland, Australia England * River Lynch, Hertfordshire * The Lynch, an island in the Rive ...

, located approximately away.

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, the largest city in the region, is located approximately southeast.

Demographics

Census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

data for Monowi highlights its uniqueness, owing to the numerical singularity of its population. As of 2010: * The total population was one (Born 1935, female,

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, named Elsie). * She was the sole householder, living alone. * Of the three housing units in Monowi, only hers was occupied.

Education

The area is within Boyd County Public Schools. The area was previously within the

Lynch Public Schools Lynch Public Schools was a school district in Nebraska. Its sole school was Lynch Public School, a pre-K-12 institution located in Lynch Lynch may refer to: Places Australia * Lynch Island, South Orkney Islands, Antarctica * Lynch Point, Mar ...

district in

. The Lynch district consolidated into the Boyd County district in June 2017.

References

External links

"Welcome to Monowi, Nebraska: population 1"
by Will Francome, Megan Garner & Eliot Stein.

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. 30 January 2018. {{Authority control 1902 establishments in Nebraska Populated places established in 1902 Villages in Boyd County, Nebraska