Authored by regional historian Tony Bamonte, Sheriffs, 1911-1989: A History of Murders in the Wilderness of Washington's Last County chronicles the grim true-crime history, law enforcement challenges, and violent frontier legacies of remote Pend Oreille County. The book investigates a series of harrowing homicide cases, missing persons mysteries, and complex investigations handled by local sheriffs operating across a sprawling, densely forested wilderness bordering Idaho and Canada. Through meticulous archival research, newspaper accounts, and police records, the text examines how rural law enforcement struggled to maintain order in an isolated landscape plagued by rugged terrain and transient populations. A keen insight drawn from the work is how regional crime reporting exposes the dark underbelly of wilderness escapism; by documenting how rugged isolation routinely attracted desperate outlaws and shielded violent criminals, the narrative shatters the romanticized myth of the peaceful frontier, revealing instead a lawless hinterland where justice was constantly undermined by vast geography.