The rural Montana property where “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski lived while sending deadly, homemade bombs in the mail to his targets has become a “very Zen” weekend retreat for a couple and their extended family.

Anita and Don Emerson purchased the 1.4-acre plot on the outskirts of Lincoln in 2017 and built a cabin of their own on the property. The infamous ramshackle, single-room cabin where Kaczynski planned his crimes and built his explosive devices had been moved years earlier to FBI headquarters.

“It’s our family property that we camp on. We’re up there every weekend,” says Anita, 56, who is a member of the Montana Army National Guard. “Our grandkids love it.”

Kaczynski, who had cancer, reportedly committed suicide in his Butner, NC, prison cell on Saturday. He was 81.

The Harvard-educated mathematician killed three people and injured 23 more in 16 explosions from 1978 to 1995. He targeted academics, airlines, and others with one of his bombs detonating on an American Airlines flight. Kaczynski pled guilty in 1998 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Kaczynski was so concerned about environmental damage and the effects of technology that he wanted to destroy modern life.

That led him in 1971 to move into a 10-by-14-foot shack, made of plywood and tar paper, that he built with his brother on the property now owned by the Emersons. The cabin had no electricity or running water.

Kaczynski was arrested in 1996. After Kaczynski’s 35,000-word manifesto was printed in the New York Times and the Washington Post, a tip from his brother led law enforcement to his cabin.

The Emersons weren’t dissuaded by the previous owner’s sordid history. They had been looking for land they could camp on for a few years when their niece, a real estate agent, came across this property. It had changed hands a few years since Kaczynski’s arrest. At one point it was listed for $154,500 before the price was reduced to $69,500 in 2010, according to CNN.

“It’s a really natural, calm place. My sister-in-law said it was ‘very Zen,” says Anita. She described the property as a ravine with creeks that run through it. “The energy at the place that we have is very positive.”

However, the couple quickly discovered that despite Kaczynski’s concern for the environment, he had left trash strewed everywhere.

“It was filthy. We had a lot of cleanup to do,” says Anita. “He just threw everything out his door. There were metal soup cans, cans that were rotted. He had a love for Hershey’s Cocoa mix. There were those plastic containers spread throughout the property.”

The Emersons found one of his dress shoes and a bottle wrapped in a rag in a rusted paint can. A piece of tape on the bottle had the words “Mercury slightly dirty” written in Kaczynski’s handwriting.

Their biggest complaint is the looky-loos wanting a peek at the property. The land is now gated, and the Emersons have put up a private property sign to discourage trespassers.

They also hope to keep Kaczynski’s spirit away.

“Now that Ted’s gone, I’ve been telling everyone if his spirit is floating around, he’s not welcome back,” says Anita. “He’s not welcome, not welcome at all.”

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