Emma Kelly was quite an adventurous person, for she was among the first women to endure the extreme conditions of the Alaskan-Klondike gold-rush in 1897. She also established a farm in N.D. as a homesteader on the south shore of Devils Lake in 1904. On this date in 1904, the Bismarck Tribune described Emma Kelly as a “writer of ability” and “woman of culture” who had fearless and “Romantic Experiences” before her arrival in North Dakota.