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Home Services Volunteers Department Information/History Safety Information |
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Norm Garrett, Sheriff - Mariposa County 1966 – 1974
Seeking a career change, Garrett moved his family to Mariposa California in 1958 where he had been offered a job at the Sheriff’s Department, by then Sheriff O.M. Whitley. Garrett was well aquatinted with Mariposa, having many times visited his Uncle at Bagby and his parents in Hunters Valley, each who had come following the lure of gold. Sheriff Garrett himself was a homeowner in Bagby and the house he owned was later moved to Bear Valley where it stands today. When Garrett was hired, three men, Sheriff Whitley, Deputy Garrett and Deputy Martin Tressider staffed the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office at the time was a room in the courthouse and the old stone jail was still in service. Deputy Garrett had served seven years when Sheriff Whitley announced his intent to retire. Whitley at first encouraged and supported Garrett in a run for the position of Sheriff, then in the middle of the campaign, Sheriff Whitley told Garrett he just did not want to retire. Garrett was elected to Sheriff in 1966 defeating Whitley. The two remained good and respectful friends. Sheriff Garrett served two consecutive and successful terms in office. He listed as contributions to the county’s law enforcement the construction of a new Sheriff’s Office and jail in 1967, a modernized radio communication system, the organization of a thirty-five member Sheriff’s Mounted Posse, establishment of the position of resident Deputy Sheriff in the Coulterville/Greeley Hill area, a work furlough program and various revenue for service agreements with state and federal agencies. Garrett instituted the deputizing of 15 Merced irrigation District employees for limited law enforcement at Lake McClure. Sheriff Garrett earned the respect of the community and had an active and eventful, nearly seventeen year, career with the department. Sheriff Garrett was in office and personally involved in the Yosemite Park "Hippie Invasion". During the melee, Sheriff Garrett was assaulted, injured, had his patrol car destroyed and lost his revolver, which was never recovered. Sheriff Garrett locked his last prisoner in the old Mariposa Jail and reported the first escapees from the new jail as soon as it was opened. One of the escapees was arrested in Los Angeles, where L.A. County was looking for seven of its own who had escaped from their own new jail. Sheriff Garrett was at the helm when a violent fugitive named Bunyard came to Mariposa and engaged in a crime spree that ended in a shootout with Mariposa deputies. A deputy hired by Garrett was able to wound Bunyard in the leg. The suspect eluded deputies and was later arrested in Merced. The deputy continued his career with Mariposa County going on himself to become Sheriff "Pelk" Richards. Remembrances of Garrett included a coroners investigation following the death of an eighty year old woman who passed of natural causes and who shared a cabin with a man not her husband. During Sheriff Garrett’s contact with the man, Garrett began to sense that the man was concealing information perhaps related to money. Following a sleepless night Garrett returned to the man to question him further and before Garrett could begin, the man said he was glad Garrett had come back because he had a dream he wanted to tell the Sheriff about. The man said that in a dream "Annie", the deceased, had cut the overstuffed chair in half with a saw and given him half. The end result was that Garrett recovered eighty thousand dollars from the chair. The money was sent to the woman’s blind sister in Canada. There was the time that a boy fled from the Deputy instead of getting out of the reservoir as directed and spent the night without his clothing which the deputy took for "safekeeping". Another memorable experience was trying to calm the fears of a very apprehensive prisoner Garrett was transferring from Tuolumne County Jail to Mariposa County Jail. For some reason the prisoner was to appear before Lay Judge Bamber in Coulterville on the way. Bamber was not immediately available so the prisoner was temporarily housed in the old Coulterville Jail. When the Judge became available he requested that the deputy bring the prisoner to the Judge’s cabin up in Dogtown. It was during that ride that the prisoner began to fear he was being taken on a one way ride to nowhere. There was the "Hells Angeles" funeral service in Mariposa wherein Sheriff Garrett contacted the group as they made preparations and he explained that they would be allowed to enter town, conduct the service, then leave. His orders were followed to the extent that the women in the club cleaned up after themselves as they left. Community policing was the order of the day as exemplified by the account of a telephone coin box theft in Bagby. The Bagby Hotel owner’s wife called to report two men with an acetylene torch in the phone booth. Garrett notified Sheriff Whitley in Mariposa, then summoned a citizen of Bagby who accompanied Garrett on the drive towards Coulterville in search of the suspect. Whitley, in the meantime, phoned ahead to the Constable in Coulterville asking him to observe and report. As a result a Highway Patrol Officer apprehended the suspects in Sonora. Sheriff Garrett recounted the memory of his friendship with his friend Chris Mills, a miner at Bagby who had struck it rich and yet unpretentious and had a very generous heart. As a reminder of just how small the world can be, Sheriff Garrett related a case in which he had arrested two servicemen from Castle A.F.B. in the early 1960’s. The two had been stealing telephone cable from poles coming out of Bagby going to Bear Valley. In the 1990’s, Garrett was visiting the V.F.W. Chapter in Coulterville. When he was introduced to a guest as the former Sheriff of Mariposa County, the man with a sheepish look asked if Garrett was the deputy who had arrested two servicemen from Castle A.F.B. for the theft of phone wire. Each had a good laugh over the reunion. Sheriff Garrett passed away February 23, 2005. Page Navigation |
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Sheriff
Garrett, born in Oregon and came to California with his parents at the age
of four. The family settled in Long Beach area. Garrett began a career as
a firefighter in Santa Ana California. He served there 17 years and
reached the rank of engineer. During this time, he served 3 ½ years with
the Coast Guard during W.W.II.