Urban Exploring Trip #6 Part 2 Monowi Nebraska, 1/6/18

Hello everyone! For those of you who are reading this for the first time, check out part one of this post, as this is part two for my trip to Monowi. For those of you who are reading this again, welcome back! I hope you enjoy my stories because I enjoy writing them! When I got to Monowi, Nebraska, I pulled right up to the World-Famous Monowi Tavern and inside I found Elsie Ellier. She is the only remaining resident of Monowi, Nebraska. I sat down with her and she was full of  information on history of the town and her life. Monowi, Nebraska started off as a railroad town in 1902. This is when the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley railroad tracks all extended to this area of Nebraska. Elsie gave me the inside scoop on the town’s history. She told me that before 1902, this area was just a settlement of land with no name to it. I know what you might be thinking: who is Elsie Ellier? We will get to that later in the post. Monowi  has a coverage of only 0.21 square miles. The Name "Monowi" comes from the Native American word for "flower", but which Native American tribe said this is still a mystery to this day. Monowi was a farming and railroad town that reached its peak in the 1930's. At its peak, there was a whopping total of 159 people living in the town. During this time there was one K-12 school, as well as a one-room schoolhouse. The k-12 school had two stories. In addition to that, there was the Monowi State Bank and a church. These were the main buildings in town. What made the  city decline in population was the lack of jobs. Therefore lots of children in the town sought jobs in other towns including the children of Elsie Ellier and her husband, Rudy Ellier.

    Now onto Elsie Ellier. She let me interview her when I got to the tavern. Elsie was born in 1924 and grew up on a small farm with her family outside of Monowi in the adjacent town called Lynch. Shortly out of high school, Elsie went to airline school in Kansas City to become a stewardess. But Elsie was denied because she was too young. She told me other women were denied back in the day for simple things such as the way they wore their hair, or what color it was. Crazy to think that those were rules back in the day! Later in life she married Ruddy Ellier on June 28th, 1954.When they were married, Rudy joined the Air Force and spent three years in France. While Rudy was over in France, Elsie taught two years of elementary school. Jump to the year 1971: Rudy and Elsie bought the Monowi Tavern for a place to have everyone gather. They were the only remaining citizens of Monowi until Rudy’s death in 2004. June 2017 would have been there 50-year wedding anniversary. That is when she became famous for being a town of one. This means that Elsie is the mayor, the librarian to over 5,000 books, and sole resident of Monowi, Nebraska. Elsie has became famous with having visitors from 47 states in the U.S., and over 41 different countries as well.

    This visit was filled with beautiful history of Elsie Ellier's life and the now-famous abandoned town of Monowi, Nebraska. She asked me why I thought the town was so special. I told her that it’s because of the beautiful history behind the town and her life! Before I decided to take the trip, a friend said to me, “One lady living in a town all by herself… That sounds like a witch to me!” I will let you make your own decision on what you think after seeing the pictures I have for you. In one building a wall was covered in weird symbols that did not look like the alphabet, so I would love to hear what you guys think they mean. Thank you everyone for reading, I hope you enjoyed this story!

Above shown is inside the only church in town. 

Above shown is the beautiful prairie grass adjacent to the church. 

Above shown is Rudy Ellier's, who is the spouse of Elsie. This his library that is home to over 5,000 books and is two buildings down from the Monowi tavern.  In addition you are allowed to check out books from the library no matter where you live! 

This is one of the very full guest books that I signed that Elsie has for everyone to sign!!!

This is a picture of Elsie in Rudy taken years ago hanging in the bar for all to see.

Elsie was very nice and let me get a picture with here this is inside the tavern. This is as if you were looking right through the front door of the tavern. 

Monowi Church. 

The famous Monowi 1 sign shown just outside of town. 

Above some abandoned trailers people used to live in back in the day.

The famous Monowi 1 is also displayed in the tavern.

More pictures inside the Tavern. 

This is the building adjacent to the tavern it was not specified as the use of this building. 

This was inside the building shown above.

Above shown is the one room school house. And as far as the eye can see the rolling parries of Nebraska!!

Above shown the inside of the large one room school house. 

Shown above another beautiful abandoned house in town. 

Shown above is the only fertilizer manufacturer in town. 

Another beautiful view inside the church.

This is inside the church as well this is the ceiling. 

Another image inside the church. 

The world famous Monowi Tavern!

This was inside one of the buildings that the use was not specified as well. Thats why the figures on the wall intrigue me. 

Close ups of one of the abandoned houses in town off the main street. 

Another house shown above left behind as well.

More house trailers.

This is inside the main building of the fertilizer company in town. 

Inside the same building as well.

These images were taken inside the same building as well.

This was one of the most beautiful spots I had driven past on the way to the town. I couldn't help but stop in the middle of the road and take a picture of it. Yes I was so much in the middle of no where I could get out in the middle of the road and take this picture, without being ran over. The views were breathtaking as you could see in any direction looking around you prairie grass as far as the eye could see!