The River That Walked
When the Columbia River froze solid, Hanford residents bypassed the ferry and walked across the ice to their ranches.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The continued extreme cold weather has frozen the Columbia River solid at Hanford so as to afford passage to traffic between the city and east side ranchers who otherwise depend on the ferry or motor boats. Pedestrians have crossed over for some days, many going over for the novelty of it. Bair Brothers, local contractors, crossed in their auto to their ranch on the east side and brought back a load of grading equipment. They pronounced the ice perfectly safe, it being eight or ten inches thick. This is something that even the oldest settlers have never witnessed before. In the winter of 1907-8 the floating ice jammed at Savage Island, several miles below town. A few people then crossed on the jam, but the river at Hanford was not frozen over. The government thermometer registered 23 below for several nights. Fruit men report much damage to the peaches and some to European grapes. Sheepmen have fed nearly all the hay they bought and there is no more to be had locally.
“This is something that even the oldest settlers have never witnessed before.”
Today, the Columbia River is heavily dammed and regulated by the Army Corps of Engineers, making a solid freeze of this magnitude virtually impossible. It serves as a reminder of a time when the river was a wild, untamed force that could completely alter the landscape of the Tri-Cities region in a single winter.
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