After working as a bull whacker on wagon trains traveling the Santa Fe Trail, Wright began a series of businesses that helped establish Dodge City and nurtured its development as a crucial link in the Texas-Kansas cattle business. Using his leverage as a member of the state legislature, his political and economic influence in Dodge City, and his wide circle of acquaintances in Texas, Wright kept the southwestern comer of Kansas open to Texas cattle from the 1860s until 1886.

When the end of the trail-driving industry was imminent, Wright refused to acknowledge the evidence, was overexpanded, and was caught in the depression of the 1890s. Dodge City plunged into an economic slump that lasted more than a decade. As the town moved into a new era, its populace downplayed the gaudy (if prosperous) past, and with it Wright was largely forgotten.