[2] She was named after Colonel (later General) George Wright, an army commander in the Indian Wars in the Oregon Country in the 1850s.

[3] The launching of the Colonel Wright was an important step in the settlement of the Inland Empire, Idaho and eastern Oregon, and in consequence, she made a fortune for her owners before others could interfere with the trade.

When she was completed they reduced the rates to $80 and made three round trips a week throughout the summer, taking full loads both ways and quickly growing rich.

When he was first assigned to the Wright, Captain White hung a square sail on the steamboat as a precaution in case of mechanical failure.

[3][4] Transportation up the Columbia River was like traversing a giant staircase, and the Colonel Wright was the first boat to run on the top step.

There again the traveler disembarked, usually on the favored north side, and rode on the portage railway to the landing at the Lower Cascades.

[3] The genius of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was to control all the boats on all the steps of the staircase, and the portages too, thus achieving a monopoly on transport in the days before there were roads or railways capable of mounting any competition.

[2] In May 1859, Colonel Wright made a scouting trip fifty miles up the Snake River, which joins the Columbia not far to the north of Wallula.

In the words of Fritz Timmen, she was burdened with all the plunder necessary to build and equip a first-class saloon, gambling hall, and honky-tonk.

The passenger list was liberally sprinkled with gamblers, bartenders, and an attractive collection of dance-hall hostesses and vaudeville entertainers.

The word spread among the woman-hungry bachelors on nearby ranches that the Wright's most important cargo wore perfume.

[2] Captain Stump reported his explorations as having been of no practical value; but he had taken a steamer farther into the heart of the regions lying to the east than any craft had ever gone before.