Wright, Kansas by Kathy Alexander.
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Section House in 1931.
Wright, Kansas, is a small, unincorporated community in northcentral Ford County.
Before the town was officially founded, the site began as a stagecoach stop. A post office was established in March 1886 and named for Robert M. Wright, who owned a large stockyard in the area. That same year, a hotel was built. The settlement was chartered in 1887 by William Hunt, J. D. Hendricks, Ira M. Cobb, John Murphy, and A. McLeod.
Situated along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad seven miles northeast of Dodge City, it did not become the cattle market its founders were hoping for but grew gradually to the point that it had a newspaper, a grain and shipping company, a general store and several other businesses. In September 1893, its post office shut down but reopened in October 1895.
In 1910, it had a population of about 60 people and a general store. Over the next century, Wright remained a small agricultural community and was never incorporated.
Today, Wright, Kansas, continues to support a post office, several grain elevators, a few agricultural businesses, and a church. It is called home to about 160 people.
©Kathy Alexander/Legends of Kansas, updated August 2023.
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