The U.S. Postal Service recognized Idaho Springs rural carrier Denise Deese on Friday for driving a million miles on her routes during her 38 years with the post office.
Juan Munoz, manager of post office operations for Area 2 in Colorado and Wyoming, presented Deese with a plaque recognizing her accomplishment.
“(This is) very rare. In fact, I have been a senior manager for 10 years, and I’ve only issued seven (of these),” Munoz said. “It’s a rare thing. That’s why it is such a big deal.”
For Deese, a former city councilwoman, working at the post office is a family tradition. Her mother, Nancy Darnell, was the branch’s postmaster.
Deese put those million miles on eight different cars, and she prefers Subarus for mountain driving. She hasn’t been in an accident in 30 years — another post office accomplishment. Deese said she travels to altitudes as high as 11,000 feet, which she’s been told is the highest route in the United States.
“I can tell you, driving that many miles puts a lot of wear on a car,” Deese said.
She has seen accidents and fires, and regularly pulls people out of snow.
“I have a tow rope with me, and it is almost once a month that somebody gets stuck up on Highway 103 and I have to pull them out — tourists,” Deese said.
When she started in the job, her route included 175 homes; it now includes 565.
In the 70 miles she drives each day, Deese has seen bears, deer, a fox and her babies, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wild turkeys, moose — but not a mountain lion, yet.
“There’s only been one time I could not make it up Fall River Road … about four and a half miles up,” Deese said. “It was the only time I didn’t deliver up to St. Mary’s Glacier.”
She said she’s not a perfect driver but is lucky and advises anyone who replaces her after she retires two years from now to be vigilant.
“You’ve just gotta be careful. You’ve just gotta look every time you leave a mailbox,” Deese said.
Contact Ian Neligh at couranteditor@evergreenco.com, and check www.clearcreekcourant.com for updates and breaking news.