(La Porte, IN) - LaPorte County Sheriff Ron Heeg was opening mail at his desk as he does any normal day when, suddenly, he found inside one of the envelopes an antique postcard depicting an in color image of the old LaPorte County Jail.

 

In the lower right hand corner of the post card was the handwritten date of August 20, 1916.

 

The envelope also contained a typed letter written by Lowell Joerg, a 96 year old man from California, who explained he stumbled upon the postcard in an antique store many years ago in his home state.

 

He’s quoted in the letter as saying “By golly, I think I’ll send it back home where it can be appreciated. Heritage is important.”

 

Joerg is a long time collector of post cards, who in recent years has made it a practice to return postcards to their place of origin.

 

In response, Heeg said he purchased about 50 stamps and sent them to the man for him to send more postcards to their “rightful homes.”

 

Heeg said he also thanked the man in writing and wrote him a brief history of the old jail built from Indiana limestone. The old jail opened in 1907 and was torn down to make way for the new jail still in use since 1977.

 

The sheriff described the standard sized postcard arriving in the mail on Valentine’s Day as being in “remarkable shape” with no post marks or any writing on it.

 

Heeg said he plans to frame the postcard and place it somewhere within the building for the public to view.

 

Former Sheriff Jim Arnold vividly remembers the old jail because his father, Cliff, lived in a four bedroom residential section of the multi-story building when he was sheriff for two terms in the 1960’s.

 

Back then, Arnold said sheriffs were expected to live in the jail because the job from having much lighter staffing was viewed more as a round the clock position.

 

Arnold, who became the sheriff for two terms beginning in the late 1990’s, said he moved in with his father at the old jail for a short time after returning from military duty in 1967.

 

He later began his career as a deputy at the sheriff’s office, which was housed in the same building as the old jail.

 

Arnold said the current jail, which is just a short distance from where the old jail stood, can house about six or seven times as many inmates as the old facility, which had room for roughly 50 or 60 offenders.

 

He was stunned to learn about the postcard and see a picture of the old jail on it.

 

“I looked at that and said oh, my gosh.  It just brought back so many memories of when you worked there,” he said.