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The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., January 5, 1939, page 1

CARRIED MAIL 20 YEARS

Just 20 years ago last Monday Zenas Mattson, Centerville rural mail carrier started delivering letters and packages to the ranchers of the Centerville community.
In those 20 years since January, 1919, through snow, mud, sleet and summer sun, he has carried mail more miles than the equivalent of nine times are around the world at the equator. By rough computation and based on his actual mileage figures, Mattson estimates that he has driven a total of 228,000 miles. This mileage was piled up at the rate of from 30 to 50 miles per day on his regular route.
When he started carrying mail out of Centerville post office 20 years ago this month, Mattson drove a team of horse. His route, only 30 miles then as compared to 50 miles today, wound about over treacherous, muddy, rough country roads.
Cars, while not novelties in any sense of the word, still were far from the efficient machines they are today. Regular rural mail carrier equipment in 1919, according to United States post office department regulations included a team of horses, buggy and a sled. Cars were accepted but horses, more dependable in the eyes of the postmaster general, where required.
Today Zenas Mattson covers his 50 mile rural route in a couple of hours riding in a warm car. When winter is at its worst, his car may have to be pulled through a mudhole or a snow drift but month end and month out Mattson now depends on his car.
However, true to the code of the rural mail service, the veteran Centerville mail carrier always appears at his post each weekday morning with the proper equipment ready to make any attempt to cover his route. And Mattson's record for the past 20 years shows an imperceptibly small number of unsuccessful attempts.
"One time," the veteran Centerville carrier recalled, "my buggy got stuck in a deep snow drift on the far end of the route. I found a fence board and dug the vehicle free, unhitched the team and led them around, hitched onto the other end of the buggy, pulled it out turned in around and went back to Centerville to deliver mail on the other end of the route. But that was and is all part of my job."