Local eccentric "Crazy Emma" Thalin Upgard (sometime Opgard or Oppgard) lived for many years in a ramshackle dwelling at 418 Hayes St., near the west end of Lawerence St. Her unusual and rather sad story is best told by her Sept. 5, 1904 newspaper obituary, seen below. Click on it to open a bigger, more readbale version in a new window.

Her precarious mental state was exacerbated by the disapperance of her husband Allek Oppgard in 1901. They married in Helena in 1891, Allek being nineteen years her junior (their ages are transposed on the 1900 census sheet).

A few weeks after her death, her ramshackle house and outbuildings were destroyed by arson.

1896 photo of Emma by Wilson Perry courtesy of the Montana Memory Project, MHS 941-503