Winnemucca News

Winnemucca News

Annual Peace Officers Banquet held to honor the men and women of local law enforcement - 05-04-2010

WINNEMUCCA — The Annual Peace Officer’s Banquet was held recently to honor the men and women working to make Humboldt County a little safer.  The banquet has been hosted by the Methodist Men (with a lot of help from the Methodist women) for … well, no one’s really sure. Some say 39 years … others say 40 years.

In years past a single officer or department was honored for a single deed or for consistent superior service. In 2010 the decision was made to forgo honoring an individual in order to honor all those in law enforcement for all they do all the time.

Pastor Gayle Basten explained it’s a difficult thing to single out one person among so many who work so hard.

In addition, there are so many unknowns. For example, someone might arrest a drunk driver and by taking that person out from behind the wheel and off the street lives might have been saved. How many? That’s unknown. Maybe yours.

Addressing the audience was Undersheriff Curtiss Kull who has spent two years researching the life of former Humboldt County Sheriff Graham Lamb for a book he's writing.  Kull read the introduction to his book aloud.  The descriptive text was a mixture of the man, the time period, and the rural setting. Kull said he intended to do justice by the story and avoid producing a boring history book.  

One of the things he points out is that Lamb started off in law enforcement at a time when deputies were still chasing outlaws on horseback.  However,  at the time of his death in 1933 law enforcement had more advanced crime-fighting tools -- like telephones and cars. Some things, though, don't change all that much. Graham was shot and killed in 1933 while following-up on a domestic dispute, which are still some of the most volatile calls cops take.

After so many years it wouldn’t be surprising if there were limited resources available to Kull for the writing of his book. However,  he not only has traditional resources, like old newspapers, non-traditional resources, like ancestry.com, but there are still some folks around who remember Graham Lamb and who will share their stories.

Kull commented, ”This guy is literally someone they make movies about.”

Kull took the opportunity to thank his family for their support and understanding during that time -- even though his daughter wondered why he would take all that time on the project when it wasn't even assigned.

The evening concluded with a PowerPoint presentation prepared by the Rorex family – with lots of help from the community – that showed each law enforcement agency in town and the many officers who are the hearts of those agencies. The presentation included a special note for those officers who lost their lives in the line of duty last year.


For Basten, one of the highlights of the evening was seeing so many law enforcement officers relaxing with their families and sharing funny stories from years gone by. 

Written by Dee Holzel - Silver Pinyon Journal - 5/4/10

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