The papers consist of correspondence, printed materials, personal papers, and photographs of William H. Wright of Chicago, Illinois, documenting the mining industry in Washington State's St. Helens Mining District during the first decades of the twentieth century. The bulk of the material is correspondence relating to investments that William and his wife Ella made in southwestern Washington, and includes materials documenting stockholder relations with specific Washington and Oregon mining corporations. The papers span the years 1897 to 1954, and include letters addressed to Wright's wife, in-laws, and son. The Correspondence series is organized into three subseries: Family Correspondence, Business Correspondence, and Third Party Correspondence. Family Correspondence consists primarily of letters from William Wright's brother-in-law, Eugene A. Sessions. Sessions's letters to his sister and her husband, mostly addressed to the latter, describe investment opportunities in the mining district around St. Helens, and trace Sessions's career as a mining investor and entrepreneur and the increasing financial involvement of the Wrights in his ventures. The letters discuss Sessions's business enterprises, which included the Cascadia Mining and Development Company, the Levens Ledge Gold Mining Company, and the Polar Star Mining Company. Business Correspondence consists primarily of stockholder letters to the Wrights from the Cascadia Mining and Development Company and the Polar Star Mining Company as well as letters replying to William Wright's inquiries about these corporations in the 1930s. Third Party Correspondence includes letters reporting on E. A. Sessions's mining properties in the St. Helens Mining District as well as two letters written by William Wright's son, Henry E. Wright, concerning his father's financial interests. Printed Materials consists of six prospectuses for the Cascadia Mining and Development Company and the Levens Ledge Gold Mining Company of Portland, Oregon. Personal Papers, organized into Financial and Legal Papers and Other Papers, includes newspaper clippings, a map of the St. Helens Mining District and Polar Star Group, and a phone book containing birth and death dates for members of the Sessions and Wright families. Photographs consists of three photographs by James H. Eaton: "Soda Springs Camp", picturing pack animals, men and one woman in June 1897; "Minnie Lee", an image of the entrance of the Minnie Lee mine; and "Polar Star", an image of four unidentified miners in front of the entrance of the Polar Star mine. An uncaptioned mounted photograph by J. A. Meiser of two loggers sitting in the cleft of a tree they've nearly sawn through is also present.
