Every head counts
When your town's total population is just four people, every head counts. So, when the 2000 Census failed to count three of the four residents of Lost Springs, Wyo., it was kind of a big deal, according to the Casper, Wyo., Star-Tribune. Luckily, the 2010 Census got it right.
The cause of the 2000 mistake is not clear, though Lost Springs Mayor Leda Price, who lives on the west side of the one-block Main Street, jokes that officials must have counted only her side of town. Since the 2000 survey, two residents died, but a newcomer moved in, bringing the current population to four. Including Mayor Price — a certified nursing assistant who also runs the town's bar, a catering business and hunting camp — Lost Springs is home to store owner Art Stringham; his brother, Alfred Stringham; and Alfred's girlfriend, Paula Johnson, according to the Star-Tribune. The Wyoming Highway Department told the Star-Tribune that it will change the town's population on signs accordingly (the town's population has been listed as 1 since 2000).
Incorporated July 31, 1911, Lost Springs had an estimated 280 residents in 1920, according to the Star-Tribune. The town once encompassed a school, a jail, newspaper and printing press, pool hall, grocery stores, and a livery stable. Many residents worked at three nearby coal mines, and when the mines closed, people left, Stringham told the newspaper. When the bank owner died, so did the bank, Price said. "Yes, we're a tiny place, but there is a lot of history here," Price said.
Read the Star-Tribune story.