MANTIOU (AP) -They call her the mayor, the first lady, the one who keeps this town going.

Evelyn Halvorson, 81, is Manitou's only resident.

All that remains of the town, next to the old Great Northern Railway tracks 12 miles west of Stanley, is the Manitou Consolidated School, along with a few assorted foundations, a crumpled old mobile home, a decaying old house, and Halvorson's residence.

Halvorson was raised on a farm northeast of Manitou and moved to the town proper in 1947. Her husband died in an accident in the winter of 1969, leaving her with the task of raising 10 children. Her last child left home more than five years ago.

"Everybody calls me the mayor but I just laugh at them," Halvorson said with a chuckle. "It's pretty desolate out here, not much movement. It's pretty quiet except for the trains. I get to see a lot of nature, and I'm still not too far from Stanley."

Halvorson has the company of her three shelties, Ladd, Lassie and Little Ladd. She spends much of her time cleaning and baking, getting ready for when her children come to visit.

"I like it when my family shows up," said Halvorson, whose home at one time served as both the Manitou General Store and Post Office.

"I just can't believe she's still hanging on out there," said Karl Meland, 86, of Stanley, who attended school in Manitou and farmed in the area.

A Halvorson get-together quickly transforms the city of one into a hub of activity. She has 22 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Usually they return home for Christmas, celebrating country-style in the four bedroom home where they grew up. However, this Christmas, the Halvorson holiday gathering will be in Surrey, at the home of one of Evelyn's children - a change from Manitou but still keeping the spirit of the holiday.

"Christmas is traditional like it used to be," Halvorson said proudly. "We go to church and spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as a family. We'll even find a place to go sledding."

Manitou is an Indian word interpreted as "great spirit." Theodore Roosevelt chose the name for his favorite horse at his Badlands ranch.

The town of Manitou was proud of its girls basketball teams. An entry in Meland's 1926 Manitou yearbook says the 1925-26 Manitou girls allowed just 16 points in six games, including a 15-0 drubbing of Stanley and a 32-1 crunching of White Shield. Manitou girls claimed the county championship in 1938, 1939 and 1940.

"We had some rough ones. Even saw a good fight there once between a player and one of the teachers," Meland recalled. "They wound up in the gym, wrestling and pulling hair."

Manitou Consolidated School, built in 1921, still sits on a hill high above the surrounding terrain.

Four classrooms took up the space on the upper level of the school. At one time, about 90 students were enrolled. The school closed in 1957.

The church also was the center of activity. The Rev. Albert Aune presided over the Manitou church from 1902 to 1947, receiving $100 a year for his services.

"We had basket socials," Halvorson recalled. "The women would put up pretty baskets and the men would bid on them.

"They had to bid or else they wouldn't have anything to eat," she said with a laugh.

The last laugh belongs to Halvorson, who has more than done her part to keep alive the memories of Manitou.

The first lady of Manitou draws water from a well and has only a couple of television channels to choose from.

The daily highlight is a visit from the rural mail carrier, perhaps carrying a letter from one of her children or grandchildren.

It's been a test for the last few years, and Halvorson said she's not certain how long she'll remain a town of one.

"It's kind of desolate out this way now," she said. "Even a lot of the farms are vacant."

Meland remembers the once bustling community that had two grocery stores, a post office, a pool hall, barber shop, restaurant, lumber yard, blacksmith shop and a church.

"It was a pretty good little town," he said.