Keweenaw County Sheriff Ron Lahti Talks About His Upcoming Retirement

In a matter of months, Keweenaw County will have a new sheriff for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century.

That’s because long time serving Sheriff Ron Lahti will soon be calling it a career.

Keweenaw County Sheriff Ron Lahti said, “I’ve had 37 years in law enforcement, 24 years as sheriff. As a young boy, my dream was to be the county sheriff one day and, thanks to the people of Keweenaw County, that dream came true and I was able to serve 24 years—six terms as sheriff, which is the longest serving sheriff in the history of the county.”

The sheriff’s residence is connected to the Keweenaw County Jail. This is where Lahti and his wife lived for many years and raised their children.

But with the jail closing, the next sheriff is not expected to do the same.

Lahti said, “I don’t see the next sheriff living here. I don’t see them wanting to live here. It’s kind of, I think, the end of an era. I think I’ll be the last sheriff to raise a family here. I raised five children in this house.”

Lahti plans on joining his wife on their 80 acre farm in Mohawk. But he says he will definitely miss being “The Singing Sheriff”.

Lahti said, “We’ve seen some tragic things. We’ve seen some funny things. We’ve seen a lot of things change in the county and we were able to make it work best for the people of the county. That’s the thing, it was always about the county residents and making sure they got what they needed.”

Lahti will continue to serve as sheriff until the end of the year.