
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.





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.
When Seth comes to the aid of a man unjustly accused of murder, the dead man's father forbids the stores in St. Joseph from selling the train any supplies.
John Cameron 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.
Just released from prison for murder, Les Rand 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. Flint is sent in search of a gang of robbers who have stolen the wagon train money and deeds to land in California.
John Darro is revealed as the man who abandoned a wagon train to the Indians several years ago. John has to prove that he's not the coward that he's reputed to be.
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 strong-willed woman, Julie Gage, runs into trouble when she's forced to "half marry" a man that she's tending to when he's stricken with fever.
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.
A riverboat gambler who has committed murder pretends to be a parson traveling with his children.
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.
An old Indian asks to join the wagon train so his son can learn the ways of the white man because he believes the Indian way of life is dying.
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.
Flint runs afoul of crooked soldiers selling guns to the Indians.
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?
An American Indian, his wife and baby join the wagon train when Major Adams discovers him badly beaten by bigoted white settlers.
A young Indian kidnaps his father's fiancé and forces her to work as revenge against the man who treated his mother badly and caused her suicide.
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 romantic triangle between Marie Dupree, Wiley Howard, and Tonio Gigli play out when the wagon train meets another one led by Wiley.
A white man who was captured by Indians, but eventually earned their respect and married his captor's sister, faces prejudice when he returns home to Boston.
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.
When the wagon train runs low on water, Adams is forced to rely on a suspected deserter to get help from a nearby fort.
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 joins the train, looking for an informer who betrayed the Irish cause. However, Liam soon falls in love with the daughter of the man who he suspects is the traitor.
Concerned about Bart Grover, one of the passengers on the wagon train, woman doctor Carol Ames Willoughby 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.
A samurai warrior fails in his efforts to bring the ashes of his master back to Japan.
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 helps out Beauty Jamison, the daughter of a dead rancher who has inherited his spread... and the local ranchers that are trying to drive her out.
A hostile orphan girl accompanies her friend: another girl 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 inhabitants of Bitter Springs are hostile to a Southern family who adopted a black child. The Sheriff is behind their intolerant attitude.
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 savior finds the man who shot him was her husband and Flint had to kill him or be killed.
Jasper Cato joins the train, claiming to be looking for man who has an inheritance waiting for him back east.
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, a one-armed Quaker, helps the train when they risk infection of cholera, and Adams faces a mutiny.
During an Indian attack on the wagon train, Major Seth Adams spares the life of Swift Cloud, crippled son of the Indian chief. Adams is shocked to learn that Swift Cloud's condition is a result of a vicious assault by a half-breed.
A would-be college professor, Vincent Eaglewood, offers to teach the train's children to pay his way to San Francisco. Major Seth agrees, but Vincent's lack of common sense gets him into trouble.
Clara Duncan joins the train in a search for her artist fiancé. But finding him could lead to trouble, as one of his missing paintings depicting a heinous crime may implicate some of the locals.
Escaped convict Duke Le May 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 Shoshone string up a Pawnee warrior to die. The train finds the warrior and discovers that he's the long-lost son of Spanish aristocrats... and the Shoshone won't stop until he's dead.
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 white men, 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 with the train make him hesitate.
A widow and her four unmarried daughters on their way to California. She hopes to find husbands for her daughters.
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.
Estaban Zamora is a Basque rancher coming to America to herd sheep... and discovers that someone has murdered his youngest son.
A woman heading west with a gaggle of girls claims that she is going to open a finishing school. The truth gets out... as does spotted fever.
The Cheyenne and the Sioux band together to attack a fort, and an officer's wife Martha Barham is abducted. However, when Flint is sent to rescue her, he discovers that she suspects that he's a renegade working with the Indians.
Cappy and his grandson Tuck try to leave the wagon train and head for San Francisco to fulfill Tuck's dream of seeing the ocean.
An old woman controls her 300,000 acres with an iron hand. But when Flint stands up to her, the woman decides that he should marry her granddaughter Angela... whether he wants to or not.
While scouting for meat, Flint stumbles across an oasis like valley protected by Jess MacAbee, who forces his daughters to do the work while claiming that Indians lurk just outside the valley.
Seth takes on a young boy who is unwilling to join the wagon train but is eventually forced to go with them. When they arrive at the next fort, they discover that the boy's father, a colonel was forced to flog his own son.
Duke Vittorio Botticelli and his butler Josef are sent to America and join the wagon train. The womanizing Vittorio falls in love with n American woman, but trouble arises when his betrothed from Europe arrives.
On Christmas Eve, the wagon train is attacked by Ute braves and one young boy is taken prisoner... or is he?
While Flint is out looking for a missing girl, a white woman who dresses and acts like an Indian takes him in when he is wounded.
The train comes across a dying woman, and Seth sets out to discover who killed her.
Flint gets caught in a war between two old friends: an Army Colonel and a Comanche leader.
The train comes across a stranded widow and her son, but she refuses to travel with the train to the next town to buy horses.
Flint takes on Larry Hanify, the 17-year-old son of a dying friend. However, Larry is soon accused of robbery.
A small train of three wagons hoping to meet the Adams train is on their own when their scout dies.
When the train runs out of water and water holes are few and far between, Flint and the others rely on Benjamin Burns to find a legendary spring that Burns saw 30 years ago in the area.
Ricky and Laurie Bell head from Baltimore out west, but when Laurie becomes pregnant, Ricky begins to resent her attention to the baby.
Tom Tuckett is helped throughout his life by a mysterious benefactor, after he helps a convict escape. He joins the train and meets a young girl who he has loved from afar, although she has always thought him beneath her station.
Tracy Sadler is trying to track down her son, David Forest. But her assistant Cadge has other plans.
British archaeologist Alexander Portlass is looking for Montezuma's treasure. His men capture Flint and force him to lead them to the treasure.
Christine Elliot plans to fulfill her dead father's dream of starting a boys school, but someone plans to stop her.
The wagon train finds a man, Joshua Gilliam, whipped and dying along the side of the trail. When they rescue him, Joshua soon befriends Greta Halstadt and claims that he's a schoolteacher... but keeps a dark secret.
The Hamiltons hire Flint to bring their spoiled daughter Maggie back, and Flint not only has to deal with Maggie's temper tantrums but renegades looking for a hostage.
Chief Red Hawk grants the train passage across his people's territory in return for them not killing any animals for supplies. But mountain man Jonas Murdock refuses to abide by the edict, putting everyone in danger.
After an argument with Major Adams, an exhausted Flint leaves the wagon train. He cools off at a bar in the nearby town of Silver Creek, not telling Adams or anyone else where he was headed. Unknown to him, locals are shanghaiing strangers for slave labor in the mine. Amos Gibbon makes an escape, only to be captured and returned to the mine.
Seth is forced to hold a trial when a member of the wagon train is found murdered.
Iver's wife Leslie appears to provide testimony that may clear the defendant's name.
A countess is desperate to get to Alaska before the Russians sell it… and her bodyguard is equally determined to make sure she never reaches Alaska alive.
A crippled Dick Jarvis befriends a runaway, Joey Henshaw, over his mother's objections.
Swift Cloud returns to the wagon train having become a white man doctor, but neither the wagon train members nor Swift Cloud's original tribe will let him practice medicine.
A singing troupe joins the train, and their leader recognizes a sunstruck survivor the train picked up as her former fiance.
Charlie takes a baby--and the only survivor of a stagecoach stricken by bubonic plague--thinking that the townspeople mean to kill it
Missionairy Abigail Newkirk finds a replacement driver, Sam Livingston, who is traveling with his friend Cass Fleming.
A medicine man, Shadrack Bennington, abandons his partner and joins the train. Shadrack soon charms a woman and an orphan, but then abandons them when the train reaches San Francisco.
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.
Horace Best, Seth's "cousin", undermines the wagon train by making better deals to build his own train. Now all he has to do is get it to California.
An arrogant British colonel joins the train and starts a feud with an Irish family... and then endangers the train when he insults a Cherokee chief.
Flint faces execution after killing a supposed horse thief who turns out to be the local town's mayor... and the husband of his childhood friend.
Bill is forced to team up with Jose Morales and his band of Mescaleros when Apaches threaten to kill them all.
Flint takes three men to investigate Haunted Mountain, and finds a lost tribe of Aztecs.
After Cathy Eckhart is murdered, apparently by Indians, Seth has each of the witnesses testify... and their stories will determine if Ben Harness lives or dies since he's been convicted of the murder of Cathy's father.
Flint, Hawks and Wooster are leading a small group of wagons split off the main train to the Dakotas. When the rains won't stop the wagon train has to travel through a Sioux Indian burial ground.
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. He learns that 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.
Colonel Buckner mistakenly wipes out a Comanche Indian village of women and children, and now Comanche braves are looking for revenge.
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.
Flint hires drunk Jeff Durant to drive a wagon on the train. It turns out that Jeff is Jeremy Dow, who supposedly died a heroic death years ago and whose family is 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.
Quaker schoolteacher Patience Miller heads to the Arapaho nation on the wagon train when her husband is killed by the Comanches. Patience is confronted immediately by Chief Spotted Horse and braves but they back off when they see her red hair calling her a medicine woman. 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.
Retired Captain Sam Elder and ten boys join the wagon train on their way to California. The boys are orphans of soldiers that fought and died under Elder in the war. he hopes to open a military academy. Hitching a ride was all he thought he was involving the boys with 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?
A dying soldier asks his old friend Ruddy Blaine to bring his daughter Penelope to him before he expires.
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 Mescalero Apaches. The children are 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.
Flint brings stranded woman Rheba Polke and her son to the train. When her husband Jed Polke returns with help, many recognize him from the Macon, Georgia Andersonville Prison (Confederate prisoner-of-war camp) where prisoners were planning an escape. Polke had turned their escape attempt in to the authorities. They have sworn to kill Polke.
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 returns to the wagon train camp to announce that their company has appointed Jud Benedict as their new wagon master, and it isn't good news. Flint McCullough then offers the position to retired wagon master Chris Hale.
Tiburcio Mendez and his group of Californios stop the wagon train because they want to keep settlers out. A judge traveling with the train believes a peaceful resolution is possible, but not everyone wants peace.
Charlie Wooster is smitten by actress Nellie Jefferson, when she joins the train. Not so with others, who tire of her incessant demands for special treatment. Meanwhile an obsessed man from her past is following her, talking about how she will meet her fate like the biblical Jezebel
A blind man, his sister and young son meet up with the wagon train on the trail; they are trying to find a train that will let them travel to California; Saul is a qualified doctor and has hopes of starting a blind school.
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.
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.
Will Santee, his mother, and his younger sister join the wagon train under a false surname after many towns forced them out due to the terrible actions of one family member.
Jim Bridger, who became Flint's father after his parents died, arrives at the wagon train. Flint is delighted until he realizes Bridger is working as a scout for an Army general who commandeers the train to save troops trapped by Utes.
Flint visits Eleanor Culhane, his former love interest who subsequently married a notorious gunman. Towns people avoid her. Believing her husband had been dead for years, Flint begins seeing her, when her husband returns. 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.
After losing one of her children in an accident, a woman becomes bitterly resentful of the wagon train and plans to turn back east, while her husband wishes to continue west. Hale, in an effort to persuade her to continue, tells her the story of his own trip west with his family and the ensuing tragedy.
Flint discovers four survivors of an Indian massacre. Despite the ordeal they've survived, they're still unaware of the danger ahead and don't know whether to trust Flint. Complicating matters, one member of the group works against Flint.
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.
Dan Brady, a colorful, boisterous and veteran frontier scout famous in the East, demands to be taken on as trail scout. Hale faces a dilemma as he will lose a freight contract necessary to finance the wagon train if he doesn't hire Brady.
Kitty Allbright is a registered nurse whose 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.
Hale rescues Clementine Jones after the citizens of Cinnebar throw her out of town as an undesirable.
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.Note: This episode was filmed and shown in color.
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.
London millionaire Lord Bruce Saybrook 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 true character comes out.
Lizbeth 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.Note: This episode was filmed and shown in color.
Flint goes undercover to infiltrate an outlaw gang.
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 the west and had made a lot of enemies along the way.
Overwhelmed Janey Cutler takes on her deceased father's responsibilities, including watching over her mother and 5 sisters and is suspicious of drifter Dick Pederson.
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.
Duke comes across Malachi Hobart, a preacher dedicating his life to his fellow man, and is impressed with his charitable works. However, he begins to believe that the pastor is in fact a con artist who is using religion to swindle people.
After Bill comes across a boy who watched his dad die in a seemingly random attack, he meets a doctor transporting musical instruments to California.
Cowboy Lonnie Fallon is in love with Kathy Jennings -- but her strict father forbids the relationship. Note: This episode was filmed and shown in color
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.
A judge notorious for going strictly by the book in his effort to bring order to the frontier faces the ultimate test when his son finds himself in court.
A vicious sergeant looking to kill two deserters drags a fresh young lieutenant along on his vendetta and mistakes Chris for one of his targets.
Chris and Duke try to rush a group to California despite inclement weather; Duke injures his foot, forcing him off the trail and into a cabin to heal up.
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.
An ousted medicine man predicts the future of a wagon train passenger.
Flint leads a fragment of the wagon train on a dangerous route through a swamp that supposedly contains mysterious creatures.
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 is being 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 shoots a horse thief and later discovers the man was already declared dead as a war hero.
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.
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 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 Winthrop. 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 the preceding wagon train falls victim to attack, fear that their train will be next results in a mutiny among wagonmaster Chris' team.
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.
Charlie offers support to a new woman who joined the train after being kicked out of Beaver City under suspicion of staging cons.
Wealthy merchant Martin Gatsby wants to get west to open a new business. With little for compassion for others, he demands that Hale avoids delays by leaving inexperienced Caleb Lefton and his family behind.
John Augustus wins a game of cards with a Chinese merchant; his prize turns out to be a beautiful Chinese girl, which the rest of the train takes issue with.
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.
A Native American tribe prepares to execute Bill, believing he tried to rob a grave site, but plans change when the chief's daughter falls in love with 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.
Highly respected Kurt Davos is badly injured while trying to save Florence Hastings on a runaway wagon. Florence, who's scared of dogs and had 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 favorite patrons decide to change Eve.
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.
After Charlie and a winemaker rescue a group of teetotal travelers from a runaway wagon, one of them falls in love with the winemaker and must reconcile her lifestyle with his profession.
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.
A sergeant becomes torn between his Cherokee roots and his loyalty to the U.S. Army when he faces a 20 year prison sentence.
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.
Alcoholic Southerner Stevenson Drake becomes angry with John Hollister, who never joined the Confederate Army, and suspects John of trying to lure away his wife.
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 dimwitted sons nab Wooster instead. To stop them, Wooster pretends to be a robber himself.
Suspicions of insanity and witchcraft abound when members of the wagon train discover several broken dolls among Sarah Proctor's belongings, prompting Hale and Charlie to investigate.
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 advice 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.
After leaving St. Joseph, Hale tells everyone there are no Indians when in fact two escaped Comanches have stolen horses and shown up at the wagon train's first stop. There, the female wants to kill a man... 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.
A British newspaper reporter rides along on the wagon train to observe the Wild West.
A woman tries to save her sister from a miserable life in a mining town.
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 Harpe, 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.
Sandra Cummings is an escapee from a Confederate prison. Against her wishes, Cooper Smith takes an interest in her daughter Paula.
The Bleecker gang attempt to use the wagon train to rob a fort.
While in the desert, Cooper finds a prospector who is lost and near death from exposure and thirst.
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.
Fenton Canaby is unjustly reputed to have led a wagon train to disaster in the desert. He unexpectedly becomes 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.
Chris Hale has loaded up on supplies because he has learned the Army has closed the normal trail so the wagon train is forced to take a difficult and dry route through the desert. Judge Arthur Forbes questions Hale's decisions, as do others. Geneva Balfour ignites a fire in hopes she and her husband Aaron will turn around and head east.
Independent freight line operator Kate Crawley and Christopher Hale are attracted to each other. Stump Beasley has his own sights focused on marrying Kate Crawley.
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 is arrested and charged with criminal negligence, being the only survivor of an expedition into the badlands. The investigation is being headed by Senator Harold Elliott and Major Ogden. He must retrace his steps with the Army and one of the victims' father.
When Melanie Craig is widowed in a wagon accident, she enjoys life as she believes her husband would have wanted her to. There is no shortage of men who want to court 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 murderer is on the loose in the town of Bedrock. Marshal Trace McCloud has been unsuccessful in capturing the killer. When most of the population joins the wagon train, so does the killer.
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.
Ben Engel and his employee Harry Diel are moving the Engle store to the west. During the Civil War, Engle paid Diel to take his place. Diel was subsequently decorated as a war hero.
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.
At the town of Stark Bluff, Duke stops by to visit an old friend, only to find that friend is now dead. His widow is forced to work for Zeb Stark, who is ruthless in his intimidation of everyone, including elected officials.
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.
Wagon train scout Cooper Smith was once shot in the back by retired Marshal Bob Stuart. Cooper must now escort Stuart and his wife Janice to the train. Thomas Lance and his younger brother Keith are also on the train. They, too, seek revenge for a brain injury inflicted by Stuart.
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.
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.
Believing Annabelle Day from the train has been hired as a singer by Sam Race in his tent city, Barnaby West feels protective of her when he realizes she is just a saloon girl. In turn, Bill Hawks wants to protect both of them.
Going to the aid of a stagecoach under fire, Coop finds a Bostonian lady to be the only surviving passenger.
Brian Conlin is in charge of some Irish immigrants who were shunned elsewhere, and in need of help. Coop is willing to help, but the immigrants have been so badly treated by others, that they are wary of Coop.
Alice Whitetree is the sole survivor of a tribe that was massacred ten years earlier. Coop, who rescued her, falls in love. As Coop hears varied stories from others about her background, he tries to find out if there is any truth in what he is told.
The train doesn't have enough room for all who want to join, including an ex-convict whose life has been threatened by his former partner.
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 Espada. 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.
Trouble strikes the wagon train when Coop is wounded, Hawks falls ill and a band of hostile Indians prepares to attack.
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 shoot 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.
Hawks refuses to turn an Indian girl over to Chief Crazy Bear, who wants to punish her for killing his son.
Coop tells Bill the story of the Earp brothers and the Silver Lady, a woman who was encased in a coffin of silver coins that melted around her after the stagecoach she was riding on and guarded by Morgan Earp had an accident and burned.
Charlie talks about his younger days in Pierce's Bend, when he worked for a rugged, God fearing trading post operator.