Tex and his sidekicks arrive to help out his friend Jeffers, a railroad owner, only to find that he has been killed. They quickly run into trouble with an outlaw gang in their attempt to find the mysterious ghost train that supposedly runs on Jeffer's line.
In the midst of the Civil War, Lassiter has a plan to get control of California. Working out of St. Joseph, he plans to send forged messages to the troops on the west coast via Pony Express. First he attempts to bribe Pony Express ride Roy Rogers. When Roy refuses he turns to the outlaw Johnson and his gang and this leads to trouble.
Peterson has a plan to obtain all the ranches in the valley. He gives Carson a phony Spanish land grant and has him pose as the Mexican owner. When Fred and Fuzzy have their cattle stolen by Peterson's men, they quickly become involved in the scheme.
Working undercover, the Rangers are after Bull and his gang. Ted successfully joins Dr. Aikmans traveling medicine show, but Jim's identity has been exposed and he is in danger.
Marshal Landry captures outlaw Girard and bringing him in finds a woman and two children, the only survivors of an Indian attack. Later, transferring the prisoner his brothers free him. Then a stage is robbed of a silver shipment by Girard and his brothers. Examining telegrams gets Landry a confession from Girard's girlfriend. The telegraph line has been tapped and the telegrapher is the supposedly dead husband of the woman he brough in. Now knowing Girard's location he sets out after him.
When the showboat hits town, two men use the parade as a distraction to rob the bank. Their accomplice is Pop, the clown from the showboat. He leaves the money on the boat and tells his daughter Patsy to bring it to him at a later stop on the river. Gene's investigation of a bank robbery takes him to the showboat where he becomes a performer. Gene and Frog try to find the money while helping Patsy and her father.
Vignettes weaving together the stories of six individuals in the old West at the end of the Civil War. Following the tales of a sharp-shooting songster, a wannabe bank robber, two weary traveling performers, a lone gold prospector, a woman traveling the West to an uncertain future, and a motley crew of strangers undertaking a carriage ride.
Gene Autry becomes the new Sheriff after bank robbers kill the former sheriff. When Judge Beaumont is murdered, evidence points to the judge's wild son. Believing the young man, Gene tries to help.
Kate Diamond owns the Roaring Falls Trading Post from where she directs her gang's gun-smuggling to the Indians. After she short-changes smuggler Stacey, his men attempt to steal the hidden guns, and attack her foreman Nebraska, but he is saved by Jimmy and "Cannonball" on their way to file a homestead claim at Canyon City. Jimmy renews a long acquaintance with Sheriff Harris and his daughter Jessica. The sheriff is wounded by half-breed Danny when he finds a rifle hidden in the latter's wagon, but Jimmy captures the outlaw, a go-between for Kate and the Indians.Wounded and in bed, Sheriff Harris ask Jimmy not to tell Jessica that she is only adopted and that Nebraska is really her father, although he believes her to be dead.
Three cowboys find that a U.S. Marshal relative is an impostor.
When Tasker kills Roy Rogers he takes one of his young sons. Fifteen years later the other son Roy arrives buying a ranch in the valley where Tasker now controls the water supply. Roy organizes the ranchers for a showdown with Tasker not knowing that his brother is Tasker's chief henchman.
Sandy Doyle, gambler and political chief of a small border town, seeks to gain control of the Bar-X Ranch, owned by Rufe Rickson, to further some undercover activities of his own. He counts on Rickson's inability to stay away from gambling as the means to his ultimate success. Government investigator Oliver Shea and his assistant, Dan Haggerty, start a fight in Doyle's place when they see Rickson being cheated and are invited to the Bar-X where Oliver and Helen Rickson, Rufe's daughter, discover interest in each other and Dan finds himself pursued by Bell, the ranch cook. Sheriff Larson brings the prize money for the $5,000 race of the Rodeo Association, and that night it is stolen.
The drought-plagued ranchers of Sundown have to market their cattle at a loss in order to meet mortgage payments held by banker Cylus Cuttler. Then, Sheriff Tex Rockett is forced to quarantine all the cattle on the local ranches because of a hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak. Steve Davis herds his cattle to the railhead anyway, and Tex is forced to arrest him. Urged on by the banker's son, Nick Cuttler, the angry ranchers storm the jail, but Steve's sister Bee persuades them to await the trial. Steve, with Nick's help, breaks jail and is told he must kill Tex to aid the ranchers. Meanwhile, government man Bret Stockton and Tex see Nick and his men treating cattle in an unusual way. Tex finally proves that the Cuttlers have been treating the cattle with acid to give a false impression of the hoof-and-mouth disease.
Gene Autry hunts bank robbers Al Bartlett and Trot Lucas with his old friend Mike. Bartlett, to throw off his pursuers, kills Trot and his own brother. When Kitty Bartlett comes to town claiming to be the slain Bartlett's widow, Gene has to save her from the irate townspeople who are not aware that her name isn't Bartlett but she really is the daughter of a law officer slain by Al Bartlett. Ben Luder, a local hood, tricks Bartlett back into town by saying he has to fixed to have Doc Larry Taylor do plastic surgery on him. En route they meet Doc and his assistant Helen Ellis and Ben's ruse is exposed. Bartlett kills Ben and forces Doc to drive him to the railroad. Gene, in a fight atop a runaway train, captures Bartlett.
James Kincaid controls the local water supply and plans to do away with the other ranchers. Government agent Sandy Saunders arrives undercover to investigate Kincaid's land swindle scheme, and win the heart of one of his victims, Fay Denton.
His horse Champion steals the show from Gene when what's at stake is a horse race and a bull fight.
A singing cowboy roams the Wild West with his sidekick, dancing horse and fancy wardrobe.
On vacation at his ranch, western actor Roy quickly finds himself involved with a horse rustling operation and a boy ward of one of the rustlers, leading to the kidnapping of Roy's trick horse Trigger by the gang with a demand for ransom.
Roy returns home to fine a range feud between the cattlemen and the sheepmen. When his friend is killed he finds the rifle had a defective pin. He learns the rifle belongs to a ranch hand named Barker and that a third party has caused the feud. When he captures outlaws trying to blow up a dam, he claims Barker was the killer. But Barker has switched rifles and the outlaws now accuse Roy and Roy finds himself in trouble.
Cattle buyer Rex Allen rides into Taskerville and sees two men toss Slim Pickens, a water diviner hired by the local ranchers, into a wagon. Rex chases the wagon to the barn of rancher Lem Shaver, where he learns from Slim that Russ Tasker, a wealthy rancher and owner of the only artesian-fed reservoir in the valley, has charged such high prices for water that the ranchers are bankrupt. Tasker's henchmen kill rancher Matt Becker and have his son Johnny branded as an outlaw. Rex learns that the Beckers had found a meager water supply and Rex suspects that is what led to the killing and the charges against Johnny. With the aid of Slim and Johnny's sweetheart, Sue, Rex finds that the Becker spring is fed from the same underground lake that feeds Tasker's well-guarded reservoir. But Rex is jailed for aiding Johnny.