The period is 1876; trains of settlers are moving westward. It is the time of pioneers and prairie schooners. Dan is leading one wagon train and his party fall in with another led by a stalwart Indian, Mahomena. They proceed together. Amongst the latter party is a young girl, Eunice, and she and Dan are immediately attracted to each other
Jane Carston was to return tomorrow from Ohio, where she had been for the past three years in school, and the ranch was all agog with expectancy and cleanliness. Bob Evans, head cowboy, was most eager and most anxious of the lot. Tomorrow finally became today and Pa had gone to the station in his best linen duster and the buckboard to meet Jane. Finally, in a cloud of dust. Bob discerns them on the brow of the hill. Arriving at the house Jane greets mother with a rousing smack.
Wanted outlaw Red Saunders shelters a young girl and her mother in his mountain hideaway after a house fire. The mother falls gravely ill and Red must sacrifice his freedom to go into town to find a doctor.
The sheriff lives with his sister, and is engaged in running down an unknown bandit who has been quite active in the district. It develops that Jim Brown, a poor miner, who has lost his wife and is in straitened circumstances, has become embittered at the world and is the bandit, living alone with his little boy, Tom.
When the Great Chief's body is placed before the funeral pile by his mourning braves, his sacred blanket is covered over it and a sentinel left to watch that this, his last resting place, is not desecrated. The tribe has just departed for their village when a mountain outlaw appears and succeeds in stealing the blanket, having given the sentinel doctored whiskey. When the Indians discover this they exile the unfaithful sentinel until he can recover the blanket.
Bob Madden returns home slightly intoxicated and his father angrily commands him to leave the place and shift for himself. The next morning he goes, leaving his father a note: "Dear Dad, I am going out West and try to make a man of myself. I hope some day you will be proud of me. Your son. Bob."
The Thomas family are the owners of a large horse ranch, on the borders of New Mexico. A neighboring band of Apaches, under the famous Geronimo, had for several years been at peace, consequently the Thomas ranch was in a flourishing condition. Tom, the foreman, and Jerry, one of his trusted lieutenants, are rivals for the hand of Jess, the ranch owner's daughter.
When gold is discovered the first man there gets to stake his claim. Joe and another man race each other, which involves a thrilling episode on a train.
During the raid on an emigrant train the girl and her brother, the only survivors, are attacked by the villain who kidnaps the girl and takes her to the camp of Calamity Anne, who takes a liking to the girl and becomes her guardian angel. The girl's brother is killed and a ranger takes the locket containing the girl's picture from his neck and recognizes the girl in Calamity Anne's camp. Later, Calamity Anne holds the villain and his band at bay and the girl and the ranger make their escape. The girl and the ranger come to the spot where the girl's brother is buried and here she asks the ranger if he is going to leave her there alone. His answer is to take her into his arms.
The accidental overturning of their "prairie schooner" kills a settler and his wife and leaves their little baby girl, Sunbeam, alone in the world. Discovered by Big Wolf, an Indian brave from a nearby tribe, Sunbeam is adopted and brought up as one of their number.
A short romantic drama in which a captain and his wife are separated by a shipwreck. The woman ends up on a desert island with another man, and they have a relationship. When they are saved by the captain, he decides to stay behind on the island, alone.
Short western, in which a hotheaded prospector argues with his wife about her housekeeping skills. She decides to leave him, and travels with a passing prospector who offers to accompany her through the mountains. However, when they are attacked by Indians, they are rescued by her husband. Eventualy the husband is killed in a second attack.
Coyote Simpson and "Alkali" Ike both love the buxom Sophie, pride of Buckskin, Ariz. Coyote has a long curling mustache that is his one pride and joy, but Sophie objects to it when he kisses her and orders him to trim it down.
Old Silas Trent, a squatter, is warned that the community is not healthy for those of his calling and to move out. Trent is furious and vows vengeance on any that try to interfere with him.
The advent of Mabel Jones on her uncle's ranch in Stony Gulch creates great havoc among the boys. Three of them, Bob, Frank and Jack are so smitten with her charms as to forget their own sweethearts who rise up in arms and are glad indeed when Mabel's visit is over.
Edna Graham is advised in a letter from her father, given her after the old ranchman's death, not to attempt to run the big "Double K," hut to secure a competent manager. Later, Edna is caused to regret not having followed her father's advice, as the men in her employ are surly and rude, and endeavor in every manner to make life miserable for her.