A view of the Columbia River shore at Arlington, Oregon, on January 12, 1909. The Columbia River is frozen. In the foreground is the white riverbank, with a large boulder to the left. Near the shore on the right of the photo is a pier, with a sailboat at its end. In the center we see a stern-wheeler. A long rope leads out from it and is coiled on the frozen river. A group of five men stand nearby, close to a rectangular area of water that has been freed of ice. Their attention is on a sixth man who is standing in a rowboat pushing at the ice with a long pole. One of the group on the river also carries a long pole. The writing on the photograph says the temperature is 20 below zero and the first time in 24 years the river had frozen over.
