When mild mannered Friendly Fields is sent to the Blair ranch to work, he is mistaken for the notorious outlaw Blackie Burke. When a drought develops and the ranchers look for new grazing land, he plays the part and forces them to give he best plot to his boss Miss Blair. But no sooner than his mother arrives to expose the hoax, the real Blackie also arrives.
President Lincoln personally sends Bill Gibson west to see if he can stop the holdups of the needed shipments of gold. There he meets his boyhood friend Foster. When all others refuse to take out the next gold shipment due to the killings, Bill volunteers. Jeannie, afraid for his safety, tells Foster of Bill's secret route not knowing Foster is the leader of the outlaw gang.
On a cattle drive Hoppy, camp cook Windy, companion Lucky, and young Artie Peters encounter an eccentric professor. The professor professes to be searching for the evolutionary missing link, but in reality he is a cattle rustler who uses his dynamite to scatter the cattle in order capture some of them. Hoppy and Bar 20 guys ultimately capture the professor.
Tal is in a lot of trouble. Seems that his father has been murdered while he was in Montana and they put the blame on him. Also, he has been framed and sentenced to 10 years hard labor for another murder which he did not do. The crooks need convict labor to build the dam so they convict innocent people for a pool of cheap labor. But Karan believes that Tal, using the name Smith J. Brown, could not be a killer. Unknown to her, her step brother, Hub, is part of the gang.
When Jim and Scrubby arrive to see Scrubby's sister, they find her murdered and suspect it was her no good husband Jake. But Jake and his men have just robbed the stage and two dectectives arrive looking for them. Finding Jim and Scrubby instead, they assume them to be the outlaws and arrest them.
In early spring of 1833, the smoldering resentment of American settlers in Texas against their oppression by Mexico dictator General Santa Anna/Ana coming to a head. When a decree is issued that no more Americans may enter Texas, William H. Wharton, fiery head of a faction determined on independence or nothing, warns Stephen F. Austin that the time for half-measures is past. Austin, responsible for bringing the Americans to Texas as colonists, reminds Wharton that a settler's revolt against Mexico would dishonor his name and the arrangements he had with the Mexican government. He gets the "Whartonites" to agree to a general convention of all colonists. Almerian Dickinson, biggest land owner in the settlement of Gonzales, deeply in love with his wife Anne, warns Wharton that a bloody revolt would endanger every wife and mother in the colony. He proposes they send Austin to Mexico City to ask Santa Anna to grant Texans a voice in their own government.
Tex is up against a group of hooded outlaws. When he shoots one, he uses the hood to infiltrate the gang. Almost caught by them, he escapes only to be arrested by the Sheriff who thinks he's one of the gang.
Rancher Reynolds has fired his men and hired killers and is now using a crooked land deal to put the other ranchers off their land. Calico finds the reason why when he runs into his old nemesis Porter.
The setting is a small town in 1870s Pennsylvania. Sally Waterson and her father have stopped in town with their traveling medicine show, but when their wagon catches fire, they find themselves stranded. They're taken in by Mrs. Cortlandt and her grandson, Peter, who is trying to set up a pipeline that will supply oil throughout the state. Sally and Peter soon fall in love and marry. Neither their marriage nor Peter's pipe dreams flow too smoothly.
Brade has hired Rattler Haynes to kill Tom Shaw. But when Shaw intercepts a message between the two, he alters it hoping it will cause the two outlaws to fight each other.
Child star Jane Withers along with fellow kiddie favorites like Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer and Jackie Searl (who gives Jane her first on screen kiss!) team up with character greats like Walter Brennan and Lon Chaney Jr. to help their hometown celebrate its golden anniversary. Not unexpectedly, things go astray when a bank robber hopes to cash in on the excitement, but fortunately his plans are thwarted by the towns newly elected sheriff (Brennan)...who's a reformed crook himself!
Native son returns from school in Spain to California in 1855 and finds corrupt politicians stealing land from old California families. He becomes a sort of Robin Hood in order to fight them.
City dweller Egghead dreams of being a cowboy, but his bouncing around gets him kicked out of his boarding house. He sees an ad for a ranch looking for a cowboy and applies. His tryout includes tests of marksmanship and use of a branding iron, but most of it consist of chasing down and roping a troublesome little calf. He passes the test, but the job isn't exactly what he dreamed of.
Both Harmon and his men and a Mexican gang are after a treasure hidden on the Wilson ranch. Acey learns of their raid and goes to get Ken only to find him in jail for a murder he did not commit.
The first of 22 inexpensive Westerns starring Jack Randall (aka Addison Randall and Allan Byron), Riders of the Dawn is yet another in a long series of oaters featuring a lawman masquerading as an outlaw.
Cattlemen's Protective Association agent Tom Wade and his partner Happy are assigned to look into the disappearance of rancher John Carroll, who has been abducted by Carson, who wants to use his out-of-the-way ranch as a base for his smuggling operations. Complications arise as Carrol's daughter, Rita, looking for him, has an unfriendly run-in with Wade, then later is herself kidnapped by Carson.
Young Dave Austin hunts down the varmint who murdered his father in this B Western. Austin tracks killer Jim Hatfield to his hideout, a Mexican cantina where Hatfield and his ruthless gang terrorize the locals. After being deputized, the courageous Austin allows himself to be captured by the gang and devises an ingenious plan to turn the bad guys against one another.