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Private Notes
Willy Moran, a drunk, is hired by a wagon as a driver. He is an army buddy of the Major, but is used as a fall guy by a member of the train who wants to rob it. When the battle starts, Willy uses his army skills to turn the battle.
The train cannot get supplies after a member kills the son of the man who owns most of St. Joseph in self-defense. He escapes with the help of Flint but when he learns the train is still being denied supplies he returns to face hanging.
John Cameron, from Philadelphia, heads west with his wife to start a new life. Her flirtatious ways may get the better of her when three trappers come into camp offering fresh buffalo and thinking she might be more available than she is.
Ruth Owens remarries and is moving west with her new husband. When her brother comes looking for her, he stirs up trouble for her about her past and himself because he just killed a man.
Les Rand, just released from prison for murder, goes back home to kill the man he held responsible; his father, the doctor. Meanwhile, Flint is there to fetch the doctor to help someone injured. Les vows that no one will stand in his way.
A pacifist since the war, Nels Stack stands up to any man prejudiced against another. When his own beliefs are tested in the face of an impending Indian attack against the wagon train, he has to decide who he is going to defend.
Emily Rossiter had a young daughter to care for. She met and married someone she felt she could trust. When she found out this was misplaced, getting the daughter away from him and into a better life becomes her main goal.
When the train picks up an abandoned drunk on the trail, he exposes John Darro to be the reviled coward John Thurman who abandoned a previous train during a massacre. Darro's young son Tommy is unable to cope with the truth.
Lieutenant Avery has a mission. Deliver a peace treaty and the chief's daughter. But he has a secret vendetta that may jeopardize everyone's hope for peace.
Mary Halstead is in search of a son she gave up a long time ago. With months to live, she comes west on the trail of someone who could be her son, but he may also turn out to be a notorious outlaw.
The wagon train stops in a newly built town to get water they had always been able to get before for free. Wanting money now, and at a steep price, has the Major upset. Sending Flint also uncovers a wife of a passenger thought dead.
Riley Gratton has always drifted from here to there, a smooth tongue getting him whatever he needed. When he tries to do the same with some folks on the Major's wagon train, what comes next may be the least of his worries.
When a new officer and troops kill an Indian brave and the post commander's drunken bored wife insults the Chief, Flint is forced to act as a neutral agent between the Army and Indians and save the wagon train.
A head strong Julie Gage is determined to ride her wagon to California. Losing her pa to fever, many suitors step up to help but she'll have none of it until one comes down with fever himself and she's the only one who will tend to him.
Mortally wounded in a buffalo stampede, Cliff Grundy's friend Flint stays when the wagon train leaves. Manson says he will help but his reasons for staying become clear as Cliff keeps saying he has a goldmine somewhere and he's recovering.
Luke O'Malley is running from an outlaw who said he would kill him for turning him into the law. Since he won't believe he didn't do it, he takes his two kids and joins Adams' wagon train disguised as a parsons, who doesn't act like one.
The Cowans and Beals have been feuding a long time. Bob and Jesse return from the war and find their family dead and the Beals have joined a wagon train. Revenging their family is just the start of what Major Adams must now deal with.
Gabe Carswell wants his son to join the whites because of what he sees coming for the Indians. When his son refuses he takes him to the wagon train heading for California but the Arapaho are getting set to attack.
Don Charlie is a gambler and womanizer and makes no excuses for it. When he meets a woman who wants to marry him there may be trouble because the Major promised her uncle that she would make it safely to San Francisco.
Dora Gray has made some poor choices in her life. Just wanting to get to San Francisco, her latest one involves someone who sells army guns to the Indians and Flint finds himself right in the middle of it.
The MacGregor clan decides to come to America and start a new life. The wagon trains going to California have had a hard time dealing with their different customs. Can Major Adams' be any different?
Bill Tawnee served his country heroically. When Major Adams recognizes him on the trail and sees he is unable to wake, he asks his wife to join his wagon train even though there is plenty of anti-Indian sentiment afloat.
Jack Hanford built his wealth to give his son. He turns it all down to honor his Cheyenne heritage when his mother dies. To make matters worse in his son's eyes, he had sent for a woman he briefly met to replace her even before she died.
Revolutionary Bernal Sierra joins the train finding the wife of his dead friend married to Casey Reardon who sold guns to the Mexican revolutionaries. Bernal is suspicious of Casey, his brothers, and Perdita over missing gold.
A beautiful woman riding with the train likes flirting. When she gets mixed up with the wrong man, she strings along a boy on the train in order to make him jealous, playing one man's love against another's.
Horse, a name he comes to be called, is searching for himself. Since he doesn't feel that he found it in Boston, where he grew up, he tries out west, under the watchful eye of a small tribe of Crow.
During a storm, Flint takes shelter at a farmhouse. He soon discovers the husband is refusing his wife the care of a midwife and before it's too late for her he needs to find out why.
Sally Potter hitches a ride on the wagon train but being pretty helps and hurts her. Someone she knew catches up to the train and wants to remind her of who she is and where she came from, possibly ruining what she wants for her future.
Faith is tested when a man's wife is injured and he refuses medical aid. When Flint rides to the nearest town to get a doctor, he finds they have their own problems: a smallpox epidemic.
During the Civil War Charlie Wooster joins Bill Hawks under the command of Major Seth Adams. When Adams is seriously wounded saving Hawks's life he must struggle to survive, while dreaming of the girl he left behind.
Years after the Civil War, Major Adams gets a second chance with his lost love Ranie, who had married in his absence. But happiness doesn't always come easy, as a sinister rival and a dark secret attest.
Disguised as Yank soldiers, a band of confederate marauders blend into the wagon train, planning on robbing everyone. They are at first stopped but a member of the train helps the man in charge when she discovers the truth to his identity.
In a growing town, Seth meets a friend from his distant past. He remembers how they met and the circumstances bringing them west. When his friend's home is threatened, not ever wearing a gun surprisingly helps him rather than the reverse.
Ruttledge Munroe joins the wagon train on the trail. It's noticed right off his odd sense of humor but when he saves the major's life, it is forgotten until he kills someone else and the real reason he joined up is revealed.
On one final push to the west, a wild west showman runs into some old friends. Some that were part of a massacre that almost cost them their lives and one man his sanity.
Trail hardened Cassie Tanner joins the train, and sets her eye on Major Adams. But the train desperately needs horses, and she may be the only one who can make the dangerous journey to buy them.
Tensions are running high in the train between northerners and southerners traveling west. As trouble escalates one passenger with a noticeable limp, John Wilbot, is accused of being John Wilkes Booth, who many believe is still alive.
Low on water, Flint scouts for more. When three water holes are dry or poisoned, Fort Paiute seems their only hope but he has to make it back to the wagon train on foot and the only other man who knows the way is believed to be a deserter.
At the end of a long journey, lives were lost. Some made it with their dreams intact. Flint tries to help two of the passengers with theirs and almost bites off too much. Politics are involved as well as unsolicited trips to the Far East.
Planning to sail to Boston, the Major, Hawks and Charlie are instead shanghaied to New Orleans where they meet a Captain who has different ideas on raising his child and running a ship.
Juan awakens to the sound of three men hanging his beloved father. Joining the wagon train, he comes across one of the three, tortured by Indians. He nurses him back to health but only under the guise of looking for the other two killers.
Jennifer Churchill, pampered all her life, runs away from a smothering lifestyle and pending marriage, and joins the wagon train. With bounty hunters on her heels, she finds Flint, a man who she wants but doesn't want her.
Major Adams allows two stowaways, Tobias Jones and his young friend Midge, to stay with the train. But Tobias is in trouble due to his drinking, and things get worse when he's accused of murder.
Liam Fitzmorgan has come from Ireland on a mission to kill an informer he believes is traveling with the train. However, his mission is complicated when he falls in love with his target's daughter.
Concerned by one of the passengers on the wagon train, a woman doctor tries to help even though she's hampered further by everyone else who shuns her. Meantime an Indian chief needs doctoring and they don't believe in female medicine men.
After advertising to look for his brother Charles and offering a $5,000 reward, a member of the wagon train gets a response from someone who walks through an Indian party that's pinning them all down. What he finds is not what he expected.
Millie Davis reluctantly takes in an orphaned baby girl. Eight years later the girl's grandmother arrives to retrieve her. But Millie doesn't want to give up the child, so she claims that she and Flint are the parents.
The major comes upon two Japanese men, attacked by Indians and heading towards California. He learns one of the men plans on committing hara kiri while others on the train have designs on a black box they suspect may contain precious gems.
When a member of the train is placed in chains after breaking Indian law by killing a buffalo, Major Adams quarrels with Flint who quits and takes a job at nearby Tent City. But White Eagle discovers the dead buffalo and demands justice.
Flint, at a grave, sees a man stabbed in the back with a note saying Deliver to Beauty Jamison. As that is the daughter of the man interred he pays a visit and sees a woman trying to continue a legacy with the locals trying to break her.
Mary Ellen is an orphan traveling west to join family, but members of the train reject her due to her surly disposition. Her only friend is Sally Mayhew, another girl traveling west with her family dying of consumption.
When the wagon horses start to die of a disease, Adams is forced to send two men who are feuding to buy new horses with his emergency money. One of the men's horse returns without him making Adams wonder if he made a mistake.
Kitty Angel finds herself not welcome on the wagon train due to her past. When Flint returns to the train toting a sick Indian baby, she has everyone's prejudices to deal with as well as this life threatening illness.
Flint, in love with a Mormon girl he can't marry, joins the confederate army. When he finds out that he won't be joining any battles and what their real purpose is, it may be too late for him and the girl he loves.
Hunter Malloy and partner get jobs as drivers on the wagon train to rob their boss. Striking gold instead while stopping to repair their wagons, the fever is high as some stop to strike it rich and uncover more than just a few nuggets.
The sheriff of Bitter Springs feels he has lots of reasons to hate. When settlers from the south want to live there, he tries to take a black child he says they are just using for free labour but his reasons go much deeper than that.
Ella Lindstrom loses her husband on the wagon train ride west from Boston. With her seven children she decides to stay the course against the wishes of Major Adams. It gets more complicated when she thinks she is expecting number eight.
Scouting for a better pass, Flint finds a mountain man, hungry and half out of his mind. With no memory, his strange behavior may endanger the entire wagon train especially when everyone feels they know who he is.
Flint escorts a wagon, leaving the train, to their new home. When they meet an old man with a wagon load of uncured buffalo skins he's trying to sell, they invite him along as he appears friendly enough. But Flint feels he's too friendly.
Flint, seeking safe passage through the mountains, is shot and losing consciousness is dragged to a cabin. Nursed back to health, his saviour finds the man who shot him was her husband and Flint had to kill him or be killed.
Wanting a safe escort through Indian country, a stranger rides upon the wagon train. Telling the major his reasons for being there, the truth is soon uncovered and it causes two men to come to change their lifelong habits.
Getting set to leave the wagon train, Vivian Carter finds out a friend she knows from the train hoped for more than that. Heading to a new life and her first marriage, she's given some options and even at her age has its surprises.
Suspecting a hurt girl he finds on the trail is part of a group of bandits, Flint cautiously helps her but soon learns she is all he suspects until her guardian is killed and Flint becomes her only protection.
Leaving the safety of their village, a group of nuns set out to help those Indians in need at a mission. Now Flint must try to help them fight some Ute Indians who don't seem to know the nuns are just there to help them.
Matthew Lowry seems timid to everyone especially a bully on the wagon train. Riding upon some cholera sick wagons in a pass, they find out who he really is and why he has been acting this way.
During an Indian attack on the wagon train, Major Adams spares the life of Swift Cloud, crippled son of the Indian Chief. Adams is shocked to learn that Swift Cloud's condition is the result of a vicious attack by a half-breed. The chief sends his son with the wagon train to go see a city doctor who might be able to cure him.
An educated man from the East tags alongside the wagon train. When he offers to teach school to pay his passage, all goes well until he is kicked off the train and the kids go looking for him - and they are near an Indian camp.
Clara Duncan joins the train in a search for her artist fiancee. But finding him could lead to trouble, as one of his missing paintings depicting a heinous crime may implicate some of the locals.
Duke Le May, an escaped convict, joins the wagon train under an assumed name. When a deputy shows up to arrest him and is killed, Flint is asked to escort him to the nearest fort for trial but he does all he can to prolong that journey.
The wagon train pushes ahead when one of the passengers has an accident. With only a wagon between two couples, one person decides to leave with money including some gold coins. They have an accident and the storm's only getting worse.
Flint must find a way to get the wagon train around a snow covered pass. On a scouting trek, he meets a father and son who are willing to help him but they want to hike up the mountain. The adventure ahead has surprises for them all.
When a big snow halts the train, several of the men disappear mysteriously with no trace of them to be found. After Flint, Major Adams, and Hawks go missing, it's up to Chuck Wooster to lead the train to safety.
The Major and party find a Pawnee Indian strung up and left to die. Back at the wagon train they find he is not who he appears to be. The mystery deepens as the Shoshonees, who hung him there, are still after him and getting closer.
The Major finds an old man in the desert and takes him to the wagon train. He doesn't remember his name but when he's recognized by one of the other passengers, he remembers not just his name but the faith he thought he lost as well.
After his parents are killed by whites, a boy is raised by a lone Indian. Years later when the wagon train stops nearby, the Indian tells the young man to join his people. But his previous experience and with the train make him hesitate.
Nearing the end of their trip, a mother with four beautiful daughters, all of marrying age and a wagon train full of men who are either the same or wanting to be and the Major is not off limits either.
A young girl is injured while on the way to San Francisco to find her famous mother who abandoned her as a baby. The crew helps her with her pending blindness and find her mother who has her own problem unknown to her daughter.
The men are returning to St. Louis by stagecoach except for Flint - until he becomes the driver to help a friend. They are forced to take a detour to Mexico by other passengers - one of whom denies knowing Flint who is in love with her.
At the beginning of any wagon train trip, the challenges faced by everyone turns a greenhorn into a seasoned veteran, even if those may mean death of those they love or some other loss.
A reporter has joined the wagon train. When the Major finds out he is a she, he finds his hands full especially when her looks and curiosity jeopardize everyone's safety and their right to vote.
Flint find a young man bleeding to death and a knife nearby. He takes the body to sheriff who identifies the man as the youngest Zamora brother. His father is on the train from Spain. He feels duty bound to kill the murderer.
Elizabeth McQueeny is traveling with her girls, heading to a finishing school in the West. When her real purpose becomes known, all the females want her gone but her worth to all shows itself before that can happen.
Flint and a long time Sioux Indian friend reunite but trouble is brewing as the Cheyenne are on the warpath and in their way is Fort Hastings, an old flame of his and her new Army Captain fiancé.
Old salt Cappy Darrin is on the train with his orphaned grandson Tuck. But Cappy's daughter granted custody of Tuck to his uncle, and as their parting nears Cappy finds he is reluctant to let Tuck go.
Tough as nails Felizia Kingdom controls an enormous amount of land by force, and no one is good enough to inherit the responsibility. When Flint handles her henchmen with ease, she decides he's the man for the job.
Flint, scouting ahead of the wagon train, is in search of fresh meat. With prospects none too good he comes upon a hidden paradise, green and lush and offering far more than he expected especially for a single man.
He says his name is Tom Smith but a young man Major Adams meets on the trail refuses to join the wagon train and won't say why. When he does find out he meets an old friend and why the boy is so tortured.
The King orders his womanizing nephew to San Francisco. He joins the wagon train but causes the Major problems as the husbands are complaining but he may have lost his heart to someone who understands.
Almost Christmas eve, the wagon train deals with a happy time, the perils that go with hostile Indians and a little lost boy who may have already been captured by those same hostiles.
As the wagon train moves through Sioux territory, a man named Marshall asks for help in finding his daughter, Ruth, who apparently was taken by Indians following a raid eleven years ago. The girl would now be 19 years old. Flint McCullough goes in search of the girl, is injured in an ambush by a lone Indian, and is treated by a blue-eyed white woman living with four wolves. The woman communicates only through sign-language and is held in reverence by the local Sioux. Meanwhile the Indian who ambushed Flint and was wounded in the process reports back to his father, Red Cloud. Red Cloud learns that the ""Woman Who Lives with Wolves"" is treating a white man and orders Flint to be brought to his camp for possible punishment. The Wolf Woman intervenes and has Flint returned to the wagon train along with a book which bears the name ""Ruth Marshall"" on its flyleaf.
Never having met Lita Foladaire, Major Adams learned a lot about her past, the town she grew up in, the people who loved her and most importantly what happened to her surrounded by those same people.
Flint goes to Fort Young to see the Harris family and Bowman Lewis who were friends from his youth. He finds Mrs. Harris dead and her husband swearing to wipe out all Indians including Lewis who leads the Comanche and his mother, Princess. English
Trying to give her son a chance, Maidie Brant is found by the wagon train. Needing fresh horses after a cougar attack, she is reluctant to say why she won't go back to town and buy some but would rather pay top dollar for the Major's.
On his deathbed, Joe asks Flint to look after his 17-year old son Larry Hanify and get him to California. There was one catch. His latest escapade put him in jail awaiting trial for armed robbery.
Taking a dangerous route through the desert to join up with the wagon train, a small band of settlers take a turn for the worse when they lose the one man leading them, their scout, and now differ on where they need to go now.
One dry water hole is normal but when the wagon train has two, Flint and Ben Burns lead a party to find a legend that only the Indians speak of, Shining Water. Troubles await them but the worst may be a too green city boy.
Laurie and Ricky Bell uproot and go West, leaving their comforts in Baltimore. When she announces she is pregnant, he is less than happy as he feels she has just made their lives more complicated especially where it concerns his needs.
Ever since he was young, Tom Tuckett has been sent to good schools and looked after by an unknown benefactor. When he joins the wagon train he feels he's about to find out who that is but it isn't who he imagined.
David Forest always believed his father to be as he claimed. When Tracy Sadler joins the wagon train his beliefs are altered when he slowly and painfully learns the truth about his past.
Kidnapped, Flint is forced to scout and find a lost Aztec treasure. As some of the men were previously thrown off the wagon train, their unfriendliness is certain unless he can help them find the lost treasure of Montezuma.
Her father on his deathbed, Christine Elliot decides to fulfill his dream of a boys school and joins the wagon train. A good start: the eleven boys he already has. One man is determined to stop her unless he collects his pound of flesh.
Bill and the Major find a man lying hurt, a meal for the buzzards. When he meets an innocent woman on the wagon train who has an inheritance waiting for her, he shows other skills besides being just a schoolteacher and her mother is wary.
When their daughter runs away from the wagon train, the Hamiltons hire Flint to bring her back. With renegades in the area, he soon discovers how spoiled Maggie really is and they still manage to make it back in one piece.
Out of meat and low on food, the wagon train must not kill any wildlife or all will face the wrath of the local Indians. The one holdout is Jonas Murdock who has always lived outside the rules and doesn't consider a rabbit an issue.
After an argument with Major Adams, Flint leaves the wagon train and mozies up to a bar at a nearby town. What he doesn't know is the locals are shanghaiing strangers for slave labour in the mine and no one on the train knows where he went.
When a well thought of member of the wagon train is found dead, Adams needs to prevent mob rule and make sure a lawful trial takes place. The accused who was not well liked is found passed out with the rifle used in the murder.
When the deceased's wife arrives, the people on the wagon train learn that the murdered man has a dark past, and this could be a case of Cain & Abel - or perhaps something or someone in the dead-man's past came home-to-roost.
Countess Baranof is desperate to get to Alaska to claim her family fortune, and with no horses she applies her considerable charms on Flint. But she's not the one Flint should worry about, as her bodyguard has a more sinister agenda.
A boy hurt in a crippling accident and a domineering mother meet a runaway boy who she feels is making him do things outside his capabilities. Another accident reveals something unexpected since it may pit two friends against each other.
Thinking he is not welcome by the white man or his people, an educated Chiracua Indian returns to find prejudices among both of them and must find a way to overcome all of them before it is too late.
Luke Grant is found wandering the desert with one wish on his mind - kill me! Turned over to the wagon train by some friendly Chiracawa Indians, they slowly discover his identity and that there are Apaches on the war path and nearby.
A baby girl sure has a rough start when she arrives on the stage with her dead mother. Plague is what people think killed her and then Charlie Wooster steps in to try to help - and well, you can imagine where it went from there.
Abigail has lost her driver to the better paying mines. Her new driver says he owns a bank and a pig. The ride West reveals another side of him that takes at least the pig to change both heart and mind.
Shadrack Bennington has been a cavalier of the open road, not wanting to be tied down until he joins the wagon train, heading for San Francisco and a future even he couldn't anticipate.
While preparing to return to St. Joseph, the men read the story "Wagon Ho" written and printed by Samuel T. Evans about his trip as a naive young Irishman headed west and his experiences and adventure on the trail.
Adams' "distant" cousin Horace arrives hoping to be a wagon master. His trading skills allow him to steal the crew and vendors from Adams but when Adams confronts him with the decisions he must make on the trail, there are second thoughts.
Arrogant British Colonel Albert Farnsworth causes an uproar in camp and puts the wagon train in danger of Indian attack, resulting in the capture of a young girl by the Cheyenne and the mortal wounding of his long time aide.
When someone yells horse thief, Flint shoots a man only to find he is the husband of a childhood friend. Flint learns the man is mayor and highly respected. The question of whether he killed an innocent man bothers him and the man's son.
Bill Hawkes is leading 3 wagons through Indian territory. They run into trouble with Mexician bandits lead by Lee Marvin. When the 2 groups must band together to fight off an Indian attack, certain biases & assumptions are thrown away.
Ordered by Major Adams to guide three passengers to a campsite up a haunted mountain, Flint does so but with caution: rumours that an escaped group of Aztecs now live there, almost 400 years after Cortez wiped them all out.
One murder begets a second murder while a treacherous journey awaits the wagon train. An unknown scout and Kiowa Indians threaten the pass. Now there may be a renegade and murderer in their midst which Adams must resolve before continuing.
Heed the signs! Or so says Samuel Bleymier. When the rains won't stop a splintered group of the wagon train has to travel through a Sioux Indian burial ground. That may have consequences all its own but what of the signs?
Dr. Craven feels he can't perform surgery any longer. When he joins the wagon train and his services are desperately needed, he realizes he may be wrong after Major Adams gives him a history lesson.
Flint discovers a badly wounded waitress on the range and takes her to a doctor, where he finds the evil town's owner wants to hang her without trial, because he suspects she murdered his son.
Gabe Henry and his son have been sorely missing the female touch over five years now. Finding a wife during a stopover is his top priority but his choice is known to Major Adams and he does not approve.
A green Army Colonel wipes out a village of Comanche women and children thinking he is getting revenge. The wagon train must face on the one side a swollen river they must cross or a Comanche chief on the other who seeks justice.
Roger Bigelow turns to the ministry with his father's help when he realizes what he might become without it. He gets the chance to help someone else on the wrong path but Major Adams is not sure the reverend is helping the right person.
When the wagon train passes through town, habitually drunk Jeremy Dow finds that his past has caught up with him. His choices: continue running, or face the demons from his past when he is confronted with this wife and son on the train.
Wounded Bill Strode arrives in camp looking for Flint. Strode, who saved Flint's life in Abilene, asks Flint to help him get to Fort Kearny. Flint learns the itchy Strode is being hunted by bounty hunter Earl Packer and Strode has changed.
A Quaker schoolteacher heads to the Arapaho nation on the wagon train when her husband is killed. She meets the Chief and his willingness to fight another Indian nation puts her right in the middle of each tribe's pride and customs.
A retired Captain and ten boys join the wagon train on their way to California. Hitching a ride was all he thought he was involving the boys in until he meets one man on the train with a secret resentment.
Bill and Major Adams plan on going hunting with a friend but when he is not home they suspect a renegade party of Cheyenne who have broken the peace treaty and the wagon train may be their next target.
The story of the women of the wagon train and the unforgiving prairie through which they pass. Who will endure, and who will give up? Who will live, and who will die?
At a Rocky Mountains fort , a wounded soldier asks his old friend Ruddy Blaine to bring his daughter to him before he dies. With the Ute Indians on the warpath, Blaine will have to take a dangerous route known only to him and the Shoshone.
Looking forward to some time off, Flint heads towards the town of Monument but runs into an old man and some kids whose parents were just massacred by some Mescaleros and they're running low on supplies especially milk for the baby.
The leaders of the wagon train are taken aback when they see a woman asking to join the wagon train who is the twin of Major Adams one and only love who died in his arms.
When Flint brings a stranded woman and boy to the train, her husband who went off to find help is also found but his return to the train sets off tempers when four men recognize him and their only thought is murder.
A married couple use the wife's innocent face and winning way with children to gain the trust of their companions on the wagon train so that they won't be suspected when the husband pulls off a bank robbery nearby.
Flint meets Chris Hale alone on the prairie. Hale has just found his entire family massacred by Indians, and Flint asks him to join the wagon train. However, the company that owns the wagon train has hired a new wagonmaster, Jud Benedict. Benedict is a ruthless and brutal tyrant who puts time above all other considerations, and does not care how many people are left behind or even die in the process of heading to the final destination as soon as possible. He has also hired unscrupulous gunmen to enforce this goal by brutalizing slower people, or anyone who stands up to him. It is revealed that Hale has also been a wagonmaster, but has retired from the job and does not ever want such a responsibility again. Still, people on the train are looking to Hale to stand up to Benedict.
Bill Hawks is leading four wagons through to California when they are stopped by Tiburcio Mendez and his band of renegades, who demand they turn back. Mendez and his group claim that California is their land and that it was stolen by the later settlers. A judge traveling with Hawks' group believes that Mendez has a legitimate grievance which could be addressed by the legislature in Sacramento, and against Hawks' warning goes in to Mendez' camp to talk with him. When Hawks follows, both he and the judge are taken prisoner.
When actress Nellie Jefferson joins the wagon train, her incessant demands for special treatment come to grate on Hale and Hawks, but Wooster is totally smitten with her. Meanwhile a fanatical man from her past is following her, talking about how she will meet her fate like the biblical Jezebel.
Saul Bevins, a blind doctor traveling with his son, his sister, and his dog, asks to join the wagon train. Many others on the train object that he will slow them down, but Hale agrees to let him ride at least until the next settlement, at which time the entire wagon train will vote on whether he should continue. On the way Bevins is forced to overcome many obstacles.
Polish immigrant Joe Muharich tries to befriend and hopefully straighten out Johnny Kamen, a brash young man who doesn't take well to anyone giving orders to him. Joe has lost his wife and son to thugs, and now he reacts violently to any attempt to harass or intimidate him. When Johnny accidentally shoots a woman while reacting against drunken thugs, Joe tries to defend him. But the thugs who harassed Johnny then harass Joe and start fire to his wagon, causing Joe to react by shooting the men and killing one of them
With his clever tall tales, old prospector Henry Shannon talks Charlie Wooster into coming with him to search for a gold mine. When Hawks finds out about this, he rides out after the two men, along with Shannon's grandson Duke. Also following the old men are three men who hope to grab the gold for themselves.
The Santee family---Will, his mother, and his younger sister---join the wagon train under a false surname. They have been forced out of town after town because of a terrible thing a family member did. They confide in Hale, Hawks, and Charlie, who agree to keep their secret from the others on the train. But it soon comes out anyway, and things get complicated when Will falls for a young woman from the wagon train.
An Army general announces he is taking over the wagon train and requiring all members to act as soldiers in helping him rescue a trapped cavalry garrison of 120 men who are otherwise likely to be slaughtered by hostile Utes. Flint, temporarily in charge of the wagon train, has little choice but to agree to the general's demand, as much as he hates it and his passengers want him to fight back. Particularly upsetting to Flint is learning that the man who recommended this takeover was Jim Bridger, a legendary frontiersman and scout who mostly raised Flint and whom he idolized.
Flint goes to visit Eleanor Culhane, an old flame of his who had been married to a notorious gunman. He finds everyone in the town she lives in shunning her, and unwilling to discuss her, because they blame her for her husband's misdeeds and the shame he caused the town. When Flint finds her they begin to rekindle their romance. But then her husband, thought dead for the last five years, shows up in town. And Flint realizes there is another side to Eleanor that he was unaware of as well.
An Italian immigrant couple needs help in transporting water for their grapevines to California. Unfortunately, the two men who offer the use of their wagon plan to steal the treasure they've heard the immigrants are carrying in return for their services.
A flashback episode - Chris Hale's duties as wagonmaster require him to leave his family in their prairie home.
Flint comes across four survivors of an Indian massacre, the two Ellison sisters and two Carder brothers. One of the sisters is deaf and mute. The brothers are the only survivors of their Army unit. The older brother, Joe, wants to desert and take advantage of the situation in order to break away and look for gold. The younger brother, George, is simple-minded and good-hearted but loyal to the older one who raised him. Flint tries to lead the four to safety, but Joe Carder tries to mislead the Ellison sisters into believing that Flint is leading them into danger.
Dissatisfied with Charley Wooster, Hale and Hawks push for a new cook - a Chinese cook named Ah Chong.
A dying Spanish nobleman asks Flint to impersonate Don Alvarado to claim the inheritance for the rest of his family. This brings Flint into contact with the men who murdered the nobleman. English
Captain Dan Brady, a colorful, boisterous and well known veteran frontier scout who is famous throughout the East, is demanding to be taken on as trail scout. Hale faces a dilemma as he will lose a Government mail contract that is necessary to finance the wagon train if he doesn't hire Brady. But he will lose Flint, angered by Brady's bad advice to members of the wagon train, who threatens to quit if Brady stays on.
Kitty Albright is a registered nurse who's stagecoach is attacked and destroyed. Flint agrees to let her use her new skill on the wagon train. She quickly becomes disturbed at the lack of hygiene and health in general around the train.
Maud Frazer takes command of her wagon train after all the men are killed. Flint tries to dissuade Maud from going through hostile Indian country where there is gold.. She proceeds anyway but is forced to change plans.
Selena Hartnell joins the train after bandits attack her wagon. Later, she reveals she is a bounty hunter looking for William Barrett, a murderer on the run. It turns out that Barrett is Will Cottrell, the leader of pacifists on the train.
Clementine Jones is in the process of being thrown out of a town when a bank robbery occurs. One of the fugitives ends up joining the wagon train on the same wagon as one of the bank robbers is trying to escape on.
Jenna Douglas is found by scouts for the wagon train. She appears to have been a victim of a scavenger attack and is adopted by the train. As time goes on people on the train begin to have doubts about her story and her mental state.
Duke finds Flint's dying foster mother who asks Flint to check on her real son Artie who she hasn't seen in five years and has a reputation for getting into trouble with the law. Flint finds him on the right side of the law - or is he.
Mark Miner and his younger brother Matthew join the wagon train after making it appear their own wagon has broken down. The passengers of the train enjoy Mark's guitar and singing, but soon items and money begin disappearing. What they don't realize is that the two brothers want to frame Duke Shannon for the thievery, because they blame him for the imprisonment of their father and want revenge for it.
Lord Bruce Saybrook, London millionaire, takes his brother, wife and employee out west on a hunting trip hoping to repair his relationships. They run into hostile Indians. During the ensuing battle, everyone's the true character comes out.
Lizabeth Ann Calhoun meets the wagon train staff as they stop for supplies. She asks permission to join the train so she can avoid the advances of a young man she claims is in love with her, however his real motives may be very different.
Flint McCullough's involvement in a horse-stealing operation proves that he's ""gone bad."" Reluctantly, Chris Hale sentences him to 20 lashes and permanent banishment from the wagon train. Bill Hawks refuses to flog his friend so the punishment's administered by Sgt. Oakes from nearby Fort Henderson. Hawks soon learns that Flint's uncharacteristic behavior is part of a plan to infiltrate the gang of notorious outlaw, Angel de Muerte. Flint now travels to the ranch of Sam Upton and his sister Madge, a place rumored to have ties with Muerte. The fresh welts on Flint's back persuade Sam to take Flint to meet Muerte, but Flint soon realizes this bearded man is a stand-in for the real Muerte -- none other than Sam Upton himself. While taking Upton to Major Hansen at Fort Henderson, the outlaw dies in an escape attempt. Flint decides to split the $10,000 reward money with Madge Upton who was unaware of her brother's dual identity.
Bettina May leads three generations of her family across the plains. Other members of the wagon train as well as some family members become concerned with her over bearing nature and the level of control she exerts on the family.
Charlie's life undergoes an epiphany when he finds an injured buffalo and the animal befriends him. He takes the buffalo, who he calls Clyde, into the wagon train as a pet. Others, however, don't appreciate the trouble the creature causes.
A man finds a corpse that looks remarkably like himself. On an impulse he takes on the persona of the dead man only to find he was a living legend of west and had made a lot of enemies along the way.
Overwhelmed girl takes on her father's responsibility as man of the house after he passes. She cares for her pregnant mother and 5 sisters and is suspicious of a young drifter who joins the train and pays too much attention to the girls.
When three wagons are late in the desert, Chris sends Duke to find them and bring them to the wagon train as the train cannot wait for them. It may be a suicide mission due to water holes drying up and the missing people's personal issues.
An old con man trys to fleece the wagon train members of money by pretending to be a preacher trying to raise funds to build a church. He is outfoxed by Duke but redeems himself by aiding a dying woman.
Bill spots a young boy alone on the trail. He passes out but they later learn he can't talk but that he saw his dad killed by strangers for no apparent reason. Later, they run into Dr. Denker taking musical instruments to California.
Cowboy Lonnie Fallon is in love with Kathy Jennings---but her strict father forbids the relationship.
Jeff Hartfield becomes concerned when his sister Jenny begins dating Dallas who threatens him with an orphanage at journey's end. Jeff takes off but Dallas follows with deadly intent, believing Jeff knows the location of $30,000.
Judge Clay and his family join the wagon train. He has a reputation for cleaning up frontier towns, but his fanatical attention to the law sees him ostracized as often as he is praised. He must face this when his son must be tried by him.
A young lieutenant on his first assignment must face an overbearing, murderous sergeant who is determined to kill two deserters in cold blood. The sergeant wounds Chris thinking he is one of them and into a feud with Flint at the train.
The wagon master encounters opposition when he calls a halt to the train due to weather. One group needs to push on due to an inheritance in California. Chris and Duke take them but Duke injures his foot forcing him to stay in a cabin.
The wagon train encounters Amos Billings who tells of a new road that might shorten their trip and avoid Indian trouble. Chris and Flint are very suspicious of the situation since the location has been a dead end.
A teacher traveling with the wagon train encounters conflict when he become attracted to the daughter of a medicine man who has just joined the train. The man despises cowards and sees the teacher as one.
Ousted medicine man predicts future of wagon train passenger. Is it a hoax or real?
A section of the wagon train splits to attempt a crossing of a dangerous swamp. On the way they hear stories from the local Indians of a strange creatures living in the swamp. Flint has a secret worry as he leads them.
The young Crawford couple is trying to leave their past behind but having difficulty doing it. The wagon train is crossing a massive ranch and the owner's son refuses to let Mrs. Crawford leave nor will the train members help them.
Chris Hale is traveling to the Wyoming prison to pick up his brother Levi---who's about to be released from prison. Chris assumed Levi was pardoned but he was paroled to Chris. He must keep Levi out of Wyoming or he will be hanged.
After the Sheriff escorts Ben Morrell and his son Terry to the wagon train, the members find Ben Morrell and his son very antisocial: the two can't even tolerate each other. One woman wants to adopt Terry believing he is being mistreated.
Bill Hawks returns the horse and belongings of a horse thief he shot to the local town sheriff. These identify the thief as a long dead war hero with a monument in the middle of town who was declared dead after a payroll robbery.
A Frenchman arouses strong---and polarized---emotions among the wagon train members: men distrust him, women adore him. He owes a substantial gambling debt and plans to pay it off by convincing a woman to pay it until he is killed.
The Nancy Davis Story Flint stops in a saloon with Bill and Charlie where he learns the whereabouts of a man he's been hunting for years---to kill. Bill has to restrain Flint who lapses into recalling his fiancé Nancy Lee Davis and his search for her killer.
Duke's resemblance to gambler Jason Carter makes him the target for a murderer's bullet when he visits Jason Carter's hometown looking for supplies. Jason has been missing for five years and only one man knows the truth about him.
Bill and Charlie looking for horses help out an old friend John Turnbull (an Ute lawyer) defend his reservation against local land sharks who look to initiate a range war so the army will push the local residents off their land.
Duke quits the wagon train to take up a steady position as Deputy Indian Agent at San Marcos on an Apache reservation under Hiram Winthrope. Hiram is an Easterner with ideas of teaching the nomadic Apache to become farmers.
Chris Hale has dinner with a society matron whose carriage team he had stopped after being spooked. A rival for the woman's attention is Chris' first problem while the crew's attempt to sabotage their relationship is the second one.
When Comancheros wipe out a small wagon train ahead of them, Chris sends Bill and Duke to check it out. They find a young wounded Comanchero who tells them they are to be attacked. Chris' actions cause a mutiny.
Indian captive Caroline Casteel is traded to a man who brings her to the wagon train. She encounters prejudice and hostility from many of the train members. But her biggest hurdle comes when her family, who had long given up hope, arrives.
Madame Delphine Sagittarius asks to be picked by the wagon train at Beaver City. The town is expelling her as a con woman. Charlie is initially against it but when no one else on the train accepts her, he becomes her lone supporter.
Wealthy merchant Martin Gatsby, a man with little room for compassion for others, wants the wagon train to keep rolling and demands that Hale leave Caleb Lefton and his family behind, because the inexperienced Lefton is causing delays.
John Augustus in a game of cards with a Chinese merchant wins a beautiful Chinese girl. But when he takes her on the wagon train, other passengers ask Hale to have him and the girl kicked off the train for their "indecent" relationship.
In the midst of a dry spell and desperately in need of water, the wagons stop at Mavis Grant's station, the only source of water for miles. But Miss Grant is a bitter and cold hearted woman who demands an outrageous price for the water.
Bill Hawks is caught with three Indian grave robbers being chased by the Indians. He is the only one captured and is to be killed until he and the Chief's daughter fall in love. However, the leading brave has other ideas for her and Bill.
An officer Chris knows is found near the wagon train near death. He tells Chris that a passage in the bible describes him and his commander - Shiloh Degnan. Chris returns him to Fort Bannerman to the Army where the truth is revealed.
When the Levy family joins the wagon train, the tranquility becomes less so as the fathers compete in checkers, young sons fight, and son and daughter fall in love. Lastly, a settler who tries to shake down the train to cross his property.
Indians kidnap an elderly lady on the train. They will return her when the train takes the Chief's son to the doctor and cure him. However, some on the train don't want to help. The task becomes harder when they learn what the illness is.
Kurt Davos, a highly respected man, is badly injured while trying to save Florence Hastings trapped in a runaway wagon. Florence, scared of dogs had once tried to kill Kurt's dog, volunteers to live with and care for Kurt, now paralyzed.
Patrick O'Shaughnessy has come to visit his daughter Eve, believing her to be a respectable married woman. Knowing that Eve actually is the popular owner of a saloon, Hawks, Wooster, Duke, and Eve's favourite patrons decide to change Eve. English
A Bible-quoting marshal joins the wagon train with his prisoner, a young bank robber whom he claims to be trying to reform. He wants the prisoner to atone for his sins by telling the location of the money he hid from his last holdup.
A woman and three companions in a runaway wagon are rescued by a winemaker and Charlie. They are against the consumption of alcohol and join the wagon train. However, she begins to fall for the winemaker until she learns his trade.
The wagon train finds Sam Darland with orphan boys in an old ghost town. Hale tries to convince Darland that it is not safe to stay in the town, as it in the midst of Indian territory and the leader of the tribe has been on the warpath.
A sea captain traveling west haunted by nightmares from his past is found stranded, injured and drunk by Bill and Charlie. After hearing his story, they help him reach his destination to locate a ghost: a dead sailor that may be alive.
When his wagon falls down a cliff, Davey Baxter's mother is killed, and his arm is crushed. The doctor is unavailable, so Chris is forced to make the decision to amputate. This changes everything for Davey and the girl he plans to marry.
On his way to Fort David, wagon scout Duke Shannon rescues Sgt. Johnny Masters being sent to prison for twenty years; a man caught between two worlds. The world of his ancestors the Cherokee, and the world of his loyalty, the U.S. Army.
Hawks rides to the John Kaylor ranch to buy horses for the train but John just died. His widow Naomi refuses to sell the horses at the price John had promised. Naomi shows no sorrow over her husband's death, only wanting to sell the ranch.
Bitter alcoholic Stevenson Drake develops a dislike for the even tempered John Hollister, a fellow Southerner, when he learns he didn't fight for the Confederacy. He also is bothered by the friendliness between his wife and Hollister.
While riding through the desert plains, Duke and Charlie come across a sheriff as he is about to die of a heart attack and his female prisoner, Lily Legend, a childhood sweetheart of Duke who the sheriff is taking to be hanged for murder.
Bella McKavitch wants to kidnap Chris Hale, in order to find out about a gold shipment which she thinks the wagon train is carrying, but her dim-witted sons nab Wooster instead. To stop them, Wooster pretends to be a robber himself.
When children's dolls are found mutilated in her possession, passengers believe that Sara Proctor is either deranged or practicing witchcraft. Hale slowly arrives at the real story after Sara confides to him and Charlie's snooping.
Duke Shannon stops in the town High Times and almost right away gets into a fight with, and accidentally kills, one of the gunmen who are essentially holding the town hostage. Then he finds his horse missing and ignores advise to leave.
An elderly couple and then a young girl become ill with typhoid fever on the wagon train. A young servant girl has attended to them all in isolation. One of the women on the train has an idea about the cause but no one wants to listen.
When four brothers are orphaned, no one on the train wants all four. Charlie is determined to find a home for the four together and even proposes to a spinster who wants the boys but turns him down so he looks for a husband for her.
The Perez family is run out of town because people believe their daughter Juana is a witch. The family joins the wagon train, and after Juana's brother Felipe is mauled by a cat, the old world is pitted against the new world of medicine.
While scouting in Wyoming territory, Duke is forced by outlaw Tom Tuesday to act as his guide to an important rendezvous in Ruby City, Idaho. Tuesday is going blind from a gunshot wound, and Duke is able to turn the tables on him.
Samuel MacIntosh picks Hamish Browne to marry his daughter Heather before the two have met. Heather is a naive young girl who thinks she can talk to animals, while Hamish is a backwoods boy who cares for his livestock more than for women.
Duke and three women under attack by Cheyenne Indians are helped by a stranger who has a fatalistic attitude toward life. They take refuge in a relay station where the stranger slowly relays his past to the others while they hope for help.
Tom O'Neal and Ellen Howard want to get married, but their parents object, so Tom takes money from his father's savings and runs away with Ellen. They soon realize that that was an unwise decision.
Duke and Charlie leave the train for supplies and to see Duke's old friends at a fort. One is a minister who was cashiered out of the Army who is trying to create peace with the Modocs despite a Major who only wants to kill all Indians.
Hale is entrusted to deliver $8,000 to a bank. Young David Garner is determined to steal it and he stows along on the wagon train, along with a girl who's in love with him. Following them is a shady man who seems to have a hold over David.
Bill Hawks receives a note asking him to help an Indian friend of his from the Civil War. He arrives to find the local town drilling a well on the man's property and eventually that the man has been hanged for attacking a local girl.
Invalid rancher Henry Ludlow is so determined that daughter Judy not marry Basque sheepherder Antone Rose that he sells his land and joins the wagon train to head west. When Antone learns of this, he joins the train as well to marry her.
Duke Shannon returns to check on his small ranch he split evenly with a childhood friend. When he arrives he finds tenant farmers being bull-whipped and a ruthless foreman his partner does not want to fire claiming he is needed.
Bill meets young Barnaby West, who claims he is traveling west to see his father, a famous frontiersman. Bill invites him to join the wagon train. But he and the others wonder just how much, if any, of young Barnaby's story is really true.
Having just left St. Joseph, Hale tells everyone there are no Indians when in fact two escaped Comanche captives steal two horses and show up at the wagon trains first stop. The female wants to kill a man there - her cowardly husband.
As the wagon train reaches Fort Pierce it is in dangerous Indian country. Chris is hoping the Army will provide an escort when they leave, but the Colonel refuses due to Army orders. In fact, he wants the lone woman there to leave with the train.
A tough railroad executive and his younger college educated brother are guided by Chris up a mountain to scout a route. When is accidentally shot by the younger brother, the older brother is forced to make a tough decision he may regret.
When Duke and Charlie do not return from a scouting assignment, Chris sends Cooper who has a pretty good idea what lays ahead. The Chinese widow of an Irish Ship Captain wants Coop to carry on her husband's empire.
Chris and Cooper along with a British journalist accompany civilians surveying for the Army when they come across an Army troop that has been massacred except for two survivors. This opens the journalist's eyes to the real America.
Coop accompanies Grace Marshall to visit her sister Myra whom, traumatized by an upbringing by an abusive father, Grace finds living a life of addiction and infidelity for which Grace wrongfully blames husband Vern.
After witnessing a bank holdup, Barnaby is taken hostage by outlaws Sam Spicer and Reno Sutton. Sam takes a liking to the boy as he reminds him of himself when Reno first made him a partner but Reno doesn't trust Barnaby.
On the train Coop is falling for the sister of the man running a gang who beat and robbed Coop in Hell's Kitchen in Brooklyn. Coop believes the man who says he is going west to change but his goons are still plying their scam on the train.
Eli Bancroft became an outlaw looking for revenge raising his three sons as such after a town's citizens banded together and forced his entire family to uproot, fearing they would catch their illness. Coop and others become his victims.
Kitty Pryer finds herself in a bigamous marriage to Victor Harp who asks her to join him on the wagon train posing as the wife of a friend until he can divorce his wife. However, Victor's change of plans puts Kitty in unique peril.
After escaping from a Confederate prison for being a spy, Sandra Cummings, becomes the lead in a musical troupe in the west. When she joins the wagon train, Cooper Smith takes an interest in her daughter Paula against Sandra's wishes.
The Bleecker gang disguised as farmers with several wagons seek Hale's wagon train to join but they actually carry a wagon of weapons and plan to hijack the train and use it and the weapons to rob a nearby fort of gold.
While scouting Coop nearly dies after finding a man near death from lack of water who has found a major gold strike. The man decides to let the wagon train share in his windfall but later reneges resulting in disaster for him and Coop.
Cassie Vance is accused of theft when money and items belonging to a woman on the train that she nursed turn up missing, and especially after another woman recognizes Cassie as having served time in prison for theft when young.
Canaby, who is unjustly reputed to have led a wagon train to disaster in the desert, becomes unexpectedly part of Hale's train as Hale has some of the same problems Canaby had and the train carries a widow wanting revenge against Canaby.
Julie Holland is falling for Michael Malone, a man haunted by the death of his sister. Meanwhile, the marriage of Ben and Beth Mitchell is strained because of Beth's increasing bitterness toward her husband and her feeling of unworthiness.
Jed Whitmore, one of three brothers that committed an infamous train robbery, is now town sheriff Frank Lewis but his brother released from prison comes to town with a fellow inmate and a reporter to get paid for the Jed Whitmore story.
Hale's train must take a dangerous desert route due to hostilities which danger grows when spoiled Geneva Balfour starts a fire destroying supplies to get her husband to return east and Hale lies to train members about the danger's extent.
When Hale begins to romance tough, independent freight line operator Kate Crawley, the others begin to fear she will wind up dominating Chris, and try to encourage her adoring assistant to better himself so that she'll notice him instead.
After being fired and setting a bomb which kills his tyrannical boss, Grover Allen joins the wagon train and heads west with his widowed daughter-in-law Della and grandson Jeff. A detective searching for Allen joins the wagon train.
Duke Shannon, arrested by the Cavalry, is charged with criminal negligence as leader of an expedition into the badlands, from which he alone has returned. He must retrace his steps with the Army and one of the victim's father.
Everyone wants to help pretty Melanie Craig after her husband is killed in an accident so four men fight over who will be the one to court and marry her. Also, Rudd Basham, father of three boys, uses the wrong ideas about women to win her.
Beautiful but shrewd Pearlie Garnet was forced to leave the wagon train after she was found to be a liar, manipulator, and thief who stole from everyone on the train.
A strangler is loose in the town of Bedrock so when the wagon train comes through it is joined by a good percentage of the town's population which it becomes apparent includes the strangler.
Duke and Bill are rescued from Indians by a stranger. He joins the train which is headed to Fort Chacon. Unknown to them he is an Army officer. Members of the train are offered stolen Army supplies creating a problem for the officer.
Wealthy Engel has used psychopathic Harry Diel as a proxy during the Civil War to save Diel from jail but Diel plots on the train as Engel's employee to usurp Engel's business by making himself appear a cuckold to Engel among other wiles.
With Chris gone Bill is in charge of the train when Barnaby goes overboard in his pranks. After messing with a wagon wheel, Bill orders him to fix it by himself causing Barnaby to break his leg causing a major rift between them.
Kim Case is returning home during Indian wars after schooling in the east although her parents have died. She is anxious to return to the man she loves, Lance Starbuck, who is an Indian raised by an Army Major from a young age.
Duke stops by the town of Stark Bluff looking for a friend and his wife who had formerly been on the wagon train. He finds out that the friend is dead, and his wife has been forced to work for ruthless saloon owner Zeb Stark, who bosses the town, including the judge and sheriff. When Duke tries to help her he is framed for killing a deputy, and Stark uses Duke's life as leverage to force the woman to marry him.
Coop brings Link Cheney to the wagon train after the professional gambler is wounded by sore losers in a game. Link is nursed back to health by Dorthea Gillford, and the two fall in love, but Dorthea hopes Link will quit gambling.
Barnaby and Charlie talk Chris Hale into hiring legendary mountain man Zebedee Titus as a scout. The nearly 80 year old Zeb's failing eyesight leads to problems including Coop's being captured by the Comanche Zeb couldn't see.
As the wagon train approaches the end of the trail, Hale's crew and passengers deal with birth, death, romance, a clash of different faiths, anger, gambling, a medical emergency, and a cooking contest as they prepare to separate.
Ex-Marshal Bob Stuart and his new wife are among three wagons joining Chris Hale's wagon train. Scout Cooper Smith is assigned to escort the new wagons to join up with the main train but there is blood, bad blood, between the scout and the ex-lawman. Entering the mix are old friends from Cooper Smith's past who also have an ax to grind against Bob Stuart. Coop soon becomes caught in between the man he was and the man he's become as his friends set out to destroy Bob Stuart and anyone who gets in the way.
Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. One of their number, Gib Ryker, is a sociopath who enjoys antagonizing young Barnaby West. With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off with the hide hunters to look for buffalo. Along the way Gib continues to bait Barnaby, much to Coop's dismay until Barnaby is forced to defend himself, with disastrous results. Now Barnaby has to face Gib's brother Zach, who's out for revenge.
John Gillman being chased and shot in the leg by a posse escapes via a river. He is found downriver nearly passes out by a young orphan girl Abigail. She takes a liking to him but he tries to rebuff her. However, events cause a change.
Bill accompanies Barnaby to Sam Race's tent city of "entertainers", where a girl from the train that Barnaby likes has taken a job, not as a singer, as she had thought, but as a saloon girl. Bill hopes to keep Barnaby out of trouble with the gambling and con games Race runs, but trouble and humiliation is just what they both find.
Cooper Smith is on his way to the town of Washburn to pick up long awaited mail for the wagon train when he stumbles upon a stagecoach robbery in progress. The very proper Miss Barbara Lindquist is on her way to meet her fiancé, mistakes Coop for one of the robbers and ends up forcing him to help her. Further misadventures see Coop wounded and both he and Barbara struggling to get to back to the wagon train for help. Believing his wound will end his days as a scout, Coop finds himself falling in love with Barbara and she with him. But will their love stand the test ...
Brian Conlin walks into Hale's camp, delirious and dehydrated. After he recovers, he leads Coop to his group of Irish immigrants, whose wagons have broken down, and Hale invites them to join the wagon train. However, having been repeatedly turned away from place after place, most members of Conlin's group are slow to trust anyone or accept help.
Coop falls for a young half-Indian woman wandering alone in the wilderness. He brings her to the wagon train, where Hale discovers she is a survivor of a tribe totally massacred ten years earlier. A sheriff says she has killed two people.
Hale is unable to take everybody on the next phase and has to turn down some of those applying. One is Ben Campbell, an ex-convict who is being hunted by his escaped former partner, who believes Ben turned him in to the law among others.
Spoiled Nancy Styles, claiming to be the daughter of the owner of the company that owns the wagon train, is determined to get to Denver by forcing her way onto it and then Hale makes it clear he plans to bypass the city due to early snow.
A blind man called Sangre has joined the wagon train along with his guide. He is actually Coop's boyhood blood brother Richard Bloodgood, and he openly states his plan to kill Coop. Coop gets very hostile and refuses to discuss it whenever Charlie or Barnaby ask the reason Richard wants to kill him, but they know it has to do with the death of a beautiful woman long ago.
With Hawks ill and Comanches threatening to attack, an Army troop meets up with the wagon train. The Indians appear to greatly outnumber the soldiers, so to give the train hope the troop's lieutenant falsely tells Hale and Coop that there is also a relief column headed their way. Complicating matters even more, a sergeant from the troop recognizes Clay Shelby, a young man on the wagon train traveling with his pregnant wife, as a deserter from back in the Civil War whom he blames for the death of his brother.
A little girl, crying each night, appears to be a ghost from The Donner Party. Many people hear her, but she appears each night to Charlie, who questions his own sanity.
Charlie has finally found someone else who shares his dream of man being able to fly, henpecked inventor Hector Heatherton, who has been working on an idea for building a flying machine so Charlie volunteers to build a machine for Hector.
While out looking for water Coop and Charlie are stopped by a gang of five, including two women, who are on the run after robbing a bank and killing three lawmen. The leader of the gang shoots Charlie after tying him up, and they take Coop to lead them through a mountain pass to get to California.
Hale finds his old flame Chottsie Gubenheimer working in a gambling house and in an argument with the owner, so he asks her to come with him and join the wagon train. He comes to realize that he's getting more problems than he bargained for.
Wanda Snow has several times seen events before they have happened, causing several people on the wagon train to accuse her of being a witch. A medicine show peddler/magician gets the idea to use her in his act, but this creates friction between him and his devious partner.
Coop and Charlie ride into a small village for supplies finding it deserted. There is an Indian who stays hidden and later three men and a woman ride into town. They have been looking for the woman's father in a cave filled with bats.
The wagon train comes across old Jamison Hershey and Herman, his 3000 pound Belgian horse. The old man has made it safely through hostile Indian territory because the tribes are so in awe of his horse. Hershey and Herman are invited to ride with the train, though it becomes apparent that Herman is not able to travel very fast and may hold back the entire group.
Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, who's condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy.
Teacher Mary Lee McIntosh refuses to pay what she feels is an excessive fee to join the wagon train, so she decides instead to follow behind it in her wagon alone, and refuses help from Hale. But after her wagon overturns, things change.
Tough and headstrong female ferryboat captain Samantha Stewart is asked by her son Johnny and his bride to accompany them on the wagon train to California, where they will board a ship for a Pacific voyage. But actually, Johnny is not telling his proud mother that her doctor has told him that she must stay with a dry climate on land or she will die.
Despite the advice of some Coop decides to visit former girlfriend Eloise Blee, but finds Eloise gone, and instead winds up being talked into posing as her twin sister Betsy's missing husband and father of her baby daughter.
Barnaby is forced to shot and kill a boy his own age who took a woman and her daughters hostage. He is cleared of any wrongdoing but cannot shake the blood he feels is on his hands plus the judge wants him to inform the boy's mother.
A white renegade rides into the wagon train camp with an Indian girl tied to a rope and forced to walk without food or water. He says that he is bringing her back to the tribe where she will be tortured and killed for killing the chief's son. Hawks, in charge of a smaller group until Hale and Coop meet them with the rest of the train, decides to forcibly take the girl from her sadistic captor and keep her with his group, even knowing that this may lead to an attack from the chief's tribe.
Coop tells Bill the story of the Earp brothers and the Silver Lady, a woman who was encased in a coffin of sliver coins that melted around her after the stagecoach she was riding on and guarded by Morgan Earp had an accident and burned.
The series' final episode begins and ends with the two characters who stayed with it from beginning to end, as Charlie tells Hawks about his earlier days working for trading post operator Jarbo Pierce. Jarbo, once a wild, hard-drinking man, had become a minister, though he could still take on any man who tried to fight him. When his younger brother Adam arrived at the post Jarbo found himself at odds with him as Adam preferred the wilder ways of life and didn't understand Jarbo's concerns for the Indians he traded with, and began working with a man who wanted to use ...
