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Lumpy, a German shepherd mix, is truly a diamond in the rough. He sits, lies down, shakes and begs for a treat. “He has the coolest personality. He deserves his forever home,” said shelter Director Jane Bernard. To learn more about Lumpy, visit the LaPorte County Small Animal Shelter at 2855 W. Ind. 2, LaPorte. The shelter’s hours of operation are Monday, Thursday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Tuesday and Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 219-326-1637. To see the shelter’s other pets available for adoption, visit http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/IN89.html.

"This photo was during the height of the storm," Howes wrote. "My neighbor, Terry Bowman, was in his father’s (Art Bowman's) Jeep and thought he could make it through the ever-increasing snow drifts. Wrong!" This photo, looking north down Holton Road from Waverly Road, shows the Jeep mired in drifts not far from the Howes and Bowman residences on Waverly.

Photos by Ralph F. Howes

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Ralph F. Howes

Jan. 26, 1967, started out ordinarily enough. The day before, LaPorte County had enjoyed a balmy 65 degrees. As the 26th dawned, it was colder but still quite mild, and not much snow was falling.

Then Mother Nature decided to have some fun.

By midday, the snow was really coming down — thick and heavy — accompanied by wind. It didn’t stop for 36 hours. The storm ultimately dumped 28 inches of snow — 22.5 inches of that total on Jan. 26. LaPorte, and the entire region, were at a virtual standstill for several days. Workers were stranded at their jobs, school kids were taken in by residents in the vicinity where their buses got stuck, cars disappeared beneath drifts.

Many have vivid memories of the storm, but LaPorte attorney Ralph F. Howes has something better than that. He has color slides he took at the time, when he was a teenager. Howes recently acquired a slide-to-computer scanner and sent copies of the images to WNLP. We’re excited to share these glimpses of local history along with his recollections.

“My uncle, William Fleck, had always had the finest in photography equipment,” Howes told WNLP. “When I was about 15, he gave a Zeiss Ikon 35mm camera to me along with a wide assortment of lenses. It was an excellent camera but old technology. I had to use an external hand-held light meter and then had to adjust focus and f settings, but it took really good pictures. At the time I had a job after school that paid about $1 per hour, so taking slides was more within my very limited budget as opposed to negatives and prints.

“The storm was quite an event. I remember looking out the windows at LaPorte High School and seeing snow coming down like I’d never seen it before. I believe we were at lunch when they announced school would be closing and we needed to gather our stuff and go to our buses. My bus route went out to Orchard Avenue and then on Garden Street. The bus got bogged down in heavy snow about 100 yards from Waverly Road. The bus driver couldn’t go any farther so a group of us bailed out and made it to my parents’ home at Waverly and Holton roads. One of those in the group was my good friend, Norman Garwood, who ended up staying with us for maybe five or six days.”

A few days after the storm, “I remember my sister, Barbara, myself and Norman, not having much else to do, walking down Waverly Road and offering to shovel out driveways. Sometimes folks were so grateful for the service they would pay us as much as $5 or so!”

If you have memories and/or photos of the ‘67 blizzard, feel free to send them to wnlp@whatsnewlaporte.com and we will post them in future days.

A few days after the storm, as the digging out ensued, "we needed to go to Hinton’s grocery store (later Hickman’s, which stood where Taco Bell is now on Pine Lake Avenue) to get some food," Ralph recalled. He shot this scene at the corner of Pine Lake Avenue and Weller Avenue, looking east across Pine Lake Avenue. At left is the Bastian-Morley showroom (the LaPorte company made boilers and water heaters) and in the background toward the right is Allis-Chalmers.

Days after the storm, cars remained buried in the LaPorte High School parking lot.

Another shot of the LPHS lot.

Ralph removing snow from the roof of his parents' home on Waverly Road. The snow was so heavy that it collapsed some roofs.

The Plymouth Valiant belonging to Ralph's father, Ralph E. Howes, sits mired in the Crichfield School (then Johnson Road School) lot. The elder Mr. Howes was principal of the school at the time.

Ralph's friend Norman Garwood, his sister Barbara and himself outside the Howes home on Waverly. Norman stayed with the Howes family for several days until he could get home.