CORNELIUS, Ore. -- A small city in Oregon has captured the world's attention with a classic form of messaging thanks to a local postmaster.

When Kerry Jeffrey, postmaster at the Cornelius Post Office, discovered his small town didn't have an official postcard, he created one himself, including images of landmarks such as the old city sign, the grocery store, an ornate church and, of course, the post office itself.

"If I get to make the postcard, I get the post office on the postcard," he said.

What happened next turned the Cornelius Post Office into an international headquarters of a social experiment. Jeffrey placed an offer online in which he invited people to send a postcard to Cornelius, a town of about 11,000 located 25 miles west of Portland. In return, each sender would get the city's postcard.

Jeffrey expected a few dozen requests for postcards to arrive in the mail.

"I wound up with about 500 from 49 countries," he said.

The postcards poured in from the Czech Republic, Hong Kong and lesser known locales like the island Bouvetoya, a volcanic rock off the coast of Antarctica.

"A couple of artists declared themselves the ambassador and made a postcard and started sending them out," Kerrey said.

Many of the postcards came from artists who have turned the postcard into their canvas.

Kerrey said visitors from many neighboring cities have come to examine the postcard collection.

"When the first person turned up from Corvallis and from Centralia, (I said), 'You drove all the way here? They're just pieces of paper,'" Kerrey said.

Customers said the postcard exhibit makes for a more enjoyable trip to the post office.

"It's pretty cool," said Dean Marek, a post office customer. "It makes waiting in line a lot more interesting."

Post office clerk Louis Nelson said it appears there's a postcard revival in a day and age where e-mail and text messaging become regular modes of communication.

"Postcards used to be real popular when I first started at the post office," Nelson said. "We've seen a lot of them come through. And now they're making a comeback."

World's Postcards Flood Cornelius Post Office