The 84-year-old Eiler opens the Monowi Tavern at 9 a.m. six days a week (it’s closed Mondays). She also runs the town library, a shed that houses some 5,000 books that once made up her late husband Rudy’s collection that Eiler has made available to the public.
Monowi once had a railroad too. The Chicago & North Western had a 208-mile branch line from Norfolk that ran through through Monowi to Winner, S.D. Like Monowi, this obscure branch has earned a measure of fame: it has a book written about it: Rails to the Rosebud by Vernon F. Linnaus with Michael M. Bartels, published by South Platte Press in 2008.
According to the book, construction began in the 1880s in Norfolk and made its way through northern Nebraska in the 1890s. It reached South Dakota in the early 1900s and Winner in 1910. The line played a vital role in bringing trainloads of land seekers to the opening of the Rosebud Indian Reservation to white settlement in the early 1900s. In 1929 it was extended 30 miles northwest from Winner to Wood, S.D., one of the last agricultural branch lines built on the eve of the Great Depression. The Winner Branch line was used to haul grain for much of its life.
For years a daily motorcar train known as the “Winner Motor” that originated in Omaha served the branch. In 1945 it reached Norfolk at 1:55 p.m. and Winner at 8:15 p.m. From Winner the motor train departed at 7:00 a.m. and reached Norfolk at 1:10 p.m.
In 1969 C&NW abandoned the line from Wood to Winner. In the mid-1970s service deteriorated on the Winner Branch and carloads dropped as service became increasingly unreliable. The Northwestern moved to abandon the branch, and after failed efforts by shippers to save it, it received approval to pull up the line. The last four cars of scrap metal from Winner were hauled back to Norfolk in June 1978, passing through Monowi for the last time.
Remnants of the branch remain. The depots in Pierce and Plainview, Neb. are now museums as is the depot in Winner. The Spencer depot was part of a local individual’s private museum, but after his death, the collection was sold and the depot moved away for another use. Bridges or portions of them remain standing along highway 12 in Verdigre, Monowi, Lynch, and Spencer. In Niobrara a large trestle is part of a trail and fishing platform.
Unlike many small communities that disappeared after the railroad left and the farm economy worsened, Monowi remains alive. As the only taxpayer in town, Eiler collects $500 from herself to keep the town’s three lampposts lit and water flowing. She’s required to create a municipal road plan every year to secure funding from the state of Nebraska. She applies to the state for her liquor and tobacco licenses yearly, signs them herself as the town secretary, and gives them to herself as the bar owner.
Even without a railroad, the town carries on thanks to its single resident.
very cool, she wears many hats well.
Grow up Charle’s.
That is one organized lady to handle govt paperwork by herself – hat’s off
Have been to Monowi several times, including for the last run in June 1978. That thing took a full six and a half days to complete due to track conditions, vegetation, etc. Thousands of people came up this line for opening of the Rosebud lands to settlement in early 1900s to register for land drawings. A former resident of Monowi was Pete Chvala, a retired section foreman who still lived in the old section house at that time. A colorful and interesting individual to say the least. We talked with him around 1980. Johnny Carson grew up in Norfolk proper at the south end of the line, which was served by C&NW, the Omaha Road and UP, now all Nebraska Central.
So, Johnny Carson must have grown up on that line, then.