McKinley County sheriff's Lt. John Kendall has spent the past three years tracking down photos of all the county's sheriffs since the office was founded in 1901 in New Mexico's Territorial days, but he's still missing the first six, the Gallup Independent reported.

Kendall, who has nearly 20 years with the department, told the paper he took on the project to give young deputies a better sense of their history by placing all the former sheriffs in a gallery in the reception area of the sheriff's office.

Still missing are Sheriffs William A. Smith, J.H. (Harry) Coddington, Tom P. Talle, R.L. Roberts, J.H. McCamant and Lou Meyers, the Independent reported.

"We've had a longer history than either the FBI and the State Police," said Kendall, who told the Independent that over the past 107 years McKinley County's sheriffs have been involved in everything from shootings to riots.

One of those sheriffs, Mack Carmichael, was shot and killed while in office, Kendall told the paper.

Carmichael was escorting a prisoner to the county jail during a riot in Gallup on April 4, 1935, when he was shot in the face, apparently by the brother of the man he was taking to jail, the Independent said.

"He is the only person in the sheriff's department in all of those years who has died in office, although we have had a couple of others who were wounded," said Kendall.

Kendall has been contacing family members to go through family albums to help fill out his gallery, and in the case of Carmichael family members told him of a photo in the Denver Post that now graces the receptionist's wall, the Independent reported.

Kendall hopes to have all six missing photos in custody by the time a new county/city public safety building is opened a year or so from now, the paper said.