Meet the lone resident of incorporated Monowi, NE. Population 1.

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Eiler’s life as the only resident of a ghost town is truly singular. Each year, she hangs up a notice in Monowi’s only business (her bar) advertising mayoral elections, and then votes for herself. She’s required to produce a municipal road plan every year to secure state funding, and then raises about $500 worth of taxes from herself annually to keep the town’s three lampposts flickering and its water flowing. “When I apply to the state for my liquor and tobacco licenses each year, they send them to the secretary of the village, which is me,” she explained. “So, I get them as the secretary, sign them as the clerk and give them to myself as the bar owner.” She also keeps track of the list of nearby vacant residential lots, in case anybody wants to move into one of the decaying buildings and double the town’s population.

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