Lincoln Library, Montana

The library in the small town of Lincoln, 15 miles west of the Continental Divide, is where the town’s most notorious resident, Ted Kaczynski, volunteered and kept in touch with the world through periodicals. His cabin was a three mile bike ride away, just off Stemple Pass Road, south of town. He first came to town as a 30-year old former math professor at UC Berkeley, to build his cabin, in 1971, and to live simply, and alone, off the grid. Around 1978, he began sending mail bombs, starting the longest and most expensive manhunt in FBI history. Over the years his bombs killed three people and injured nearly two dozen others. In 1995 he sent a letter to newspapers, including the New York Times, saying he would stop his terrorism, if they published his manifesto, “Industrial Society and its Future” which condemns industrial society, argues for a back to “wild nature” lifestyle, and criticizes both the liberal left, and the righteous right. The 35,000-word essay was published in the Times and the Washington Post, and his brother recognized the writing, leading to his identification as the “Unabomber,” and his arrest in a carnival of media and law enforcement that changed the town forever. After he was arrested in 1996, the cabin itself was removed as evidence, and traveled around the country a bit, before it found its way to the Newseum, a museum about the news industry in Washington DC. The cabin site off Stemple Pass Road has been sold, and its current owners are not interested in sharing its history. Kaczynski is serving several life sentences at the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.