I is for Ismay: Tiny town renamed itself Joe, Montana and got more than a fire truck out of it

There may not be a faster-growing city in all of Montana than Ismay. Its population has almost doubled in the past eight years.

Yeah, it’s clear up to 26 people. But we know it’s 26, and eight years ago it was only 14, because both times, Rita Nemitz counted every last one of them on her fingers for us.

"There’s a family over here," says Ismay’s first lady, pointing in some direction, "that moved in from South Dakota and has four kids. That’s a population explosion for us."

By Vince Devlin

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/news/local/i-is-for-ismay-tiny-town-renamed-itself-joe-and/article_c939fedf-5078-547a-b409-bb38896ef124.html

***

Ismay: ‘9 miles from the middle of nowhere,’ where 2 cars constitute a traffic jam

Most of this tiny town is either completely gone, or abandoned to the weather of the eastern Montana prairie.

Perhaps it’s the boarded-up houses still standing, or the vague remains of a school that closed half a century ago, that make one building in the northeast corner of Ismay stand out.

By Vince Devlin

http://missoulian.com/news/local/ismay-miles-from-the-middle-of-nowhere-where-cars-constitute/article_fdb63b04-8fa3-5f01-986a-50bf2f991b15.html