office was established April 9, 1850. The office was not at the present town of Molalla, but was moved to that place in the '70s. The highway bridge over the Molalla River north of Liberal is also named for Harrison Wright.
WRIGHT POINT, Harney County. This is a long neck of solid land extending into the flats north of Malheur Lake. It was named for Camp Wright, which was established in October, 1865, by Captain L. L. Williams, and named for Brigadier-General George Wright. For details concerning Captain Williams and his operations in the Shoshone War, see Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 514. George Wright was born in Vermont, and graduated from West Point in 1822. He served in various Indian campaigns and in the Mexican War, with distinguished gallantry, receiving three brevets. He came to the Pacific Coast in 1852, and was identified with operations in Oregon and Washington, finally reaching command of the Department of the Pacific in 1861, with the rank of brigadier-general. He and his wife were drowned in the wreck of the Brother Jonathan, which foundered off Crescent City, California, July 30, 1865, with a loss of about 300 lives. See under CAMP
WRIGHT. Wroe, Douglas County. Wroe post office was on North Fork Smith River about four miles up stream from the mouth. The office was named for the family of the first postmaster. It was established November 27, 1922, with Floyd A. Wroe first and only postmaster. The office was discontinued June 20, 1923. In April, 1948, William M. Wroe of Reedsport, brother of Floyd A. Wroe, wrote from Reedsport that by the time Wroe post office was set up for business it was found that a number of the prospective customers had moved away from the valley of the North Fork. In these circumstances it was concluded not to operate the office, so it never actually functioned.
WYETH, Hood River County. Oregon has seen fit to honor one of her notable explorers by attaching his name to a railroad station that achieved fame largely because it was for some years the site of a "tie pickling plant." Other than that, not much has been done to commemorate Nathaniel J. Wyeth. Wyeth, trader and patriot in one, had a definite plan to counteract the British fur-trading influence in the Pacific Northwest. Inspired by Hall J. Kelley, but compelled to dissolve a compact with him because of Kelley's procrastination, Wyeth crossed the plains without the Boston school teacher in 1832, the first American after the Astor overlanders to make the journey to the Willamette. On a second expedition, in 1834, he convoyed the missionaries, Jason and Daniel Lee, built Fort Hall, near the present site of Pocatello, and named it for one of his financial backers. He established on Sauvie Island the trading post which he called Fort William. With him came Thomas Nuttall and J. K. Townsend, naturalists who share with David Douglas the honor of being pioneers in science in Oregon, and John Ball, first school teacher in the Pacific Northwest. Wyeth planned a more diversified program than that of the Hudson's Bay Company, studied salmon packing and visioned an American trade with the Orient by way of the Pacific Coast, asking no exclusive privilege for his company. "Nothing on our part is desirable," he wrote, "excepting aid to get men out there and enacting some laws for their regulation when there, and leave us to ourselves." Wyeth's Correspondence and Journals, edited by
