Gays is a village in Moultrie County, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 259 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Gays is located at 39°27′32"N 88°29′47"W (39.458782, -88.496367).

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1 km²), all of it land.

Attractions

A two-story outhouse

Outhouse

An outhouse is a small structure separate from a main building which often contained a simple toilet and may possibly also be used for housing animals and storage.- Terminology :...

 is located in the town. It was built in 1869 for apartments that were attached to a general store. The top floor was used by the apartment dwellers while the bottom floor was used by patrons of the store. Although the store and apartments were demolished, the outhouse remained. Each level has two seats, so the outhouse could be used by four at a time. Waste from the top level dropped behind a false wall into a pit.

West of the outhouse is the former site of what was claimed to be Hitler

Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...

’s bicycle

Bicycle

A bicycle, also known as a bike, pushbike or cycle, is a human-powered, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A person who rides a bicycle is called a cyclist, or bicyclist....

. A rust

Rust

Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...

y bicycle once hung on a pole with a sign that read "Hitler’s Bike (1934)."

Demographics

As of the census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 259 people, 99 households, and 76 families residing in the village. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 633.5 people per square mile (243.9/km²). There were 104 housing units at an average density of 254.4 per square mile (97.9/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 98.46% White and 1.54% Pacific Islander.

There were 99 households out of which 41.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.7% were married couples living together, 5.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.2% were non-families. 18.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.62 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the village the population was spread out with 27.8% under the age of 18, 5.8% from 18 to 24, 32.4% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 10.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 112.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.8 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $42,500, and the median income for a family was $42,813. Males had a median income of $29,688 versus $21,944 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $19,131. About 2.5% of families and 3.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.6% of those under the age of eighteen and none of those sixty five or over.

Climate and weather