A Milwaukee & Northern Railroad locomotive pulls a consist of passenger cars through a freshly cleared and heavily logged landscape at Colby, Wisconsin in this albumen carte de visite, the railroad name legible on the tender and the location confirmed by a period inscription on the reverse reading "Milwaukee & Northern RR / Colby Wis." The foreground is strewn with felled logs, fresh stumps, scattered lumber, and overturned barrels, documenting the active timber harvesting that drove railroad expansion through northern Wisconsin during the 1880s. A large water tank dominates the upper left of the frame.

The locomotive faces left with steam visible at the cab, its tender lettered for the Milwaukee & Northern. Three passenger cars follow behind, with a group of figures visible on the platform beside the middle car. Twin sets of rails run through the cleared ground, and telegraph poles extend into the distance at right. The surrounding landscape shows the characteristic appearance of recently harvested timber country, with isolated conifers remaining against the treeline in the far background.

The Milwaukee & Northern Railway Company reorganized as the Milwaukee & Northern Railroad Company on 22 April 1880 and pushed its lines northward through Wisconsin's timber country before being acquired by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul in 1890. The image documents both the railroad and the logging economy it served in Clark County during the height of the northern Wisconsin lumber era.

The reverse bears no photographer's imprint but carries two period pencil inscriptions identifying the railroad and location.