In 1864 there was a need for a jail in Leelanau County. The people of Northport held a meeting and passed a resolution to build it, paid for in part by the county and the rest “by subscription”.
About this time four gangs of cattle rustlers roamed the county stealing oxen, cows, and horses, driving them off and selling them. ‘Sherriff Lee’ had his hands full capturing them.
Where did these and other law breakers in our area go once captured? To the Northport jail, built in 1864, and replaced by an even more substantial jail in 1903 (the one pictured). Conditions were pretty unpleasant in the old jail. Water had to be brought in, and you can be sure it wasn’t nice warm water for bathing, and waste carried out, a most unpleasant job done no more than once a day if that.
In a letter to the editor of the Leelanau Tribune, published in 3/18/1875, Eusebius F Dame wrote this about the old jail (in defense of the county seat remaining in Northport rather than being moved to Leland): “As you state, whereas the county at present owns a merely ‘worthless jail’ in Northport, now all we have to say on this subject is if anyone is weak-minded enough to believe your ‘asssertion’, let them commit some crime and we will convince them that this ‘worthless jail’ at Northport will answer all purposes it was intended for.” A good crime deterrent for cattle rustlers!
—Isaac Hagen
Information courtesy “A History of Leelanau Township”, Friends of the Leelanau Township. Photo credit Don Harroldson, Northern Michigan Photo Postcards