Gunfighter Wild Bill is haunted by dreams in which he faces a soulless menace out for vengeance. As Bill is driven to share his nightly terrors with other cowboys in the firelight, their reactions prove to be enlightening and humorous.
Jeremy Wales, a crook who stays on the safe side of the law but bends it whenever possible,has tricked short-sighted John 'Dad" Saunders to sign a note for ten thousand dollars instead of the one thousand that Saunders borrowed to work his "Rose o' My Heart" mine. Saunders tells his problem to Phil Lee, a prosperous young rancher, whose method of settling problems has gained him the nickname of "Quick Trigger."
In this Western, Ken Curtis, Columbia Pictures' low-budget answer to Gene Autry, romanced one of the studio's most beautiful starlets, Rita Hayworth-lookalike Dusty Anderson. She played Helen Wyatt, whose father (the rotund Guy Kibbee) loses his ranch to the hayseed singing group the Hoosier Hot Shots. Unbeknownst to Wyatt, the Hot Shots have been swindled by a couple of Eastern crooks (Ian Keith and Matt Willis) and consider themselves the lawful owners. Chased by the irascible Wyatt, the band members seek protection from aspiring singer Curt Stanton (Curtis), who they mistake for a gunslinger.
Number 10 in Monogram's series of 24 "Range Busters" westerns, Crash Corrigan, Dusty King and Alibi Terhune, the Range Busters,enlist in Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders during the Spanish-American War, but are mustered out and sent to Wyoming to clean up a cattle-rustling situation that is affecting the Army's meat supply. Arriving in North Butte, Crash's home town, they all get separate jobs. Jane Blanchard, a reporter from the Denver Daily, also arrives in town in search of a story, and is posing as a waitress. They learn that Jeff Miller is behind the huge combine of rustlers, but Miller also learns that they are the Range Busters and are on his trail. He and his henchmen engage the out-numbered Crash and Alibi in a fight, but Dusty stampedes a large herd of Miller's stolen cattle into the midst of the fray.
Tex and Ananias are sent by the government to capture some Santa Fe rustlers. Tex recognizes Hendricks as an outlaw, captures him and learns that Hendricks intends to meet a rustler named Dorgan. Tex goes instead and finds out that Dorgan plans to move rustled cattle through the ranch owned by Graham and his daughter Ruth. Dorgan has Graham Pass set to be dynamited to stop any pursuit.
A group of cowboys ending their cattle drive in Abilene find that cattle prices are being kept artificially low, driving down the price they'll get for their beef. They set out to change the situation.
A "special" by Monogram standards, Lure of the Wasteland was lensed in a not inexpensive process called Telco-color. Grant Withers takes a break from his duties in the "Mister Wong" series to play Smitty, a US marshal assigned to track down $250,000 in stolen bonds.
Jack is looking for the man that was responsible for the death of his sister after he hired her as a school teacher. When he runs into school teacher Ann who was just hired by Corey, he soon realizes Corey is the man he is after. Lacking proof, he works on Corey's nerves hoping to get a confession from him.
Johnny and Alibi try to straighten out a hostile young boy whose older brother was a notorious stagecoach bandit. When a gang of thieves try to strong-arm the kid into revealing the whereabouts of the stolen loot, Johnny and Alibi come to the rescue. There's a cursory romantic subplot involving heroine Mary and Barstow.
Local "patriot's league" leader secretly kills off ranchers, buys up their estates, which are undermined with tin ore; Marshal and singing cowpoke team up to find villain and motive.
Johnny Williams (Johnny Mack Brown) returns to his home town of Beaufort, and finds himself when being chased by banker Henry Stevens (Tristram Coffin), Grangers Association head Les Travers (Ed Cassidy as Edward Cassidy) and real estate agent Frank Wilkins (Ted Adams.)
Bringing Bart Calhoun (Marshall Reed) to justice for his complicity in a robbery/murder, Johnny assumes that his job is over. Not by a long shot! Calhoun's arrest leads to the uncovering of a wide-ranging conspiracy to smuggle silver from Mexico to the United States.
Johnny Mack Brown was nearing the end of his starring career when he appeared in the Monogram oater Dead Man's Trail. Brown and his youthful sidekick Jimmy Ellison come to the aid of imperiled Barbara Allen. At this point, Johnny was too long in tooth and thick around the middle to qualify as a romantic lead, hence the presence of Ellison.
Andy Fowler is made a member of a gang of rustlers after rescuing one of their number from a fire, but he finds his freedom threatened by the local sheriff, who is actually the gang's leader and wants Andy's girlfriend for his own.
Blacksmith Pinto Peters calls on his old friend, Sam "Hurricane" Benton, to help him clear his son, Jimmy, of a murder charge. Hot-headed Jimmy, believes that the best way to cure a man of cheating at cards is to shoot him. He didn't shoot him enough, as the gambler only feigns death as part of a plot to gain possession of land owned by Pinto, as they know there is gold on the land buried there by an outlaw gang years ago.