No relation to the 1950 John Ford classic of the same name, Rio Grande is yet another rubber-stamp Charles Starrett western from the Columbia assembly line.
Dusty is a small burro living a quiet life with her elderly master, a farmer in Mexico, until two men sneak onto the farm and steal her. They use the animal to help them rustle cattle. Dusty carries their water and other supplies, but the men are cruel and mistreat the burro, allowing her little water and feed. Tired of this mistreatment, Dusty strains to break free of the hobbles used to control her. Starring Bill Keys as Andy, Bill Pace as a Rustler and Jim Burch as a Rustler.
Rancher Clay Travers finds and brings in the body of ranger Frank Mattison, murdered on the road to Trail City, where he had been sent to deal with an outbreak of cattle rustling. Businessman Art Kenyon, who has hired gunman Ed Martin to impersonate Mattison to further his rustling schemes, quickly changes Martin's story and has Travers framed for the ranger's murder. Managing to escape, Travers must come up with proof to clear his name and bring the true killers to justice.
Retired wealthy sea captain Jim McKay arrives in the Old West, where he becomes embroiled in a feud between his future father-in-law, Major Terrill, and the rough and lawless Hannasseys over a valuable patch of land.
When his cattlemen abandon him for the gold fields, rancher Wil Andersen is forced to take on a collection of young boys as his cowboys in order to get his herd to market in time to avoid financial disaster. The boys learn to do a man's job under Andersen's tutelage; however, neither Andersen nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.
After serving a five year prison sentence for allowing his men to destroy a town in a drunken spree, a trail boss is hired by the same town's leading citizen to drive their cattle to Fort Clemson. Complicating matters, a rival cattle baron also hires the cattle driver to lead his herd.
Headstrong Thomas Dunson starts a thriving Texas cattle ranch with the help of his faithful trail hand, Groot, and his protégé, Matthew Garth, an orphan Dunson took under his wing when Matt was a boy. In need of money following the Civil War, Dunson and Matt lead a cattle drive to Missouri, where they will get a better price than locally, but the crotchety older man and his willful young partner begin to butt heads on the exhausting journey.
A cowboy and his sidekick fight evil guys who want to rustle cattle in order to get hold of land.
A cowboy arrives to help a girl who has a note due. He plans to sell her cattle to raise the money but they are stampeded and most are killed. Knowing who stampeded them gives him another plan to get the money.
Running from the law, Jim Hall joins Hays’ gang. Hays is foreman on the Herrick ranch and plans to rustle Herrick’s cattle. Attracted to Herrick’s sister Helen, Jim decides to tell the Sheriff about the raid. But when his plan is overheard he is made a prisoner.
A cattleman fights to establish a ranch in the middle of gold country.
The Transcontinental Broadcasting Company sends a sound truck and equipment to a ranch to obtain an audition from "Santa Fe" Evans and his musical cowboys (Oscar Gahan, Lloyd Perryman, Robert "Curley" Hoag, Rudy Sooter and Sherry Tansey.) Carver, arch enemy of Evans and a rival for the love of Carol Sheldon, fails in an attempt to spoil the audition. Carver frames Mr. Sheldon and Carol's brother Buddy on a charge, by Al Jensen, of receiving cattle stolen from him by Evans. Carver blames Evans for all of the Sheldon's troubles and, what with one thing or another, it looks like Evans and his cowhands will miss the big broadcast.
In 1896, Jeff Webster sees the start of the Klondike gold rush as a golden opportunity to make a fortune in beef...and woe betide anyone standing in his way! He drives a cattle herd from Wyoming to Seattle, by ship to Skagway, and (after a delay caused by larcenous town boss Gannon) through the mountains to Dawson. There, he and his partner Ben Tatum get into the gold business themselves. Two lovely women fall for misanthropic Jeff, but he believes in every-man-for-himself, turning his back on growing lawlessness...until it finally strikes home.
Ted Warren returns from WWI to find that everyone thinks he was dead. The culprit is Kent who intercepted his mail, rustled the Warren cattle, took over the Warren ranch, and is now after Ted's girl friend. When Kent's henchmen fail to kill Ted, Kent shoots Ted's father and leaves him for dead. But only wounded, the plan is to have Warren appear as a ghost to get a confession from Kent.
Captain Porter's scheme is to buy livestock and then have his men show up later to kill the buyer and retrieve the money. When his men kill the next victim, he frames the Arizonian for the murder. The Arizonian escapes the law and joins up with the outlaw Vasquez. Knowing Porter's scheme, he plans to trap him by using Vasquez as the next buyer.
Eddie Dean is a Cattlemen's Association agent investigating a serious rash of rustlings along with sidekicks Soapy (Roscoe Ates) and Waco (Lee Bennett. The latter bears a striking resemblance to Lawrence ranch foreman Bert Ford (also Bennett), who has been the target of several assassination attempts. Rancher Lawrence (Lee Roberts) and Eddie decide that Waco shall impersonate Ford, who is hiding out in a hotel room.
A drought is about to end the cattle business. The owner of a canning factory wants to buy all the remaining cattle cheap. He plans to ruin the cattlemen's plans to ship water by train and to seed the clouds for rain. Roy is sent by a packing house to investigate.
Mortimer builds a fence for the cattle brought by Ken Morley. To retaliate, Slater who wants access to the land, builds a dam cutting off Mortimer's water supply. When Ken confronts Slater, he is captured. Then lightning destroys the dam and Ken, imprisoned in a shack, is in the path of the oncoming water.
A cattle baron takes in an orphaned boy and raises him, causing his own son to resent the boy. As they get older the resentment festers into hatred, and eventually the real son frames his stepbrother for fathering an illegitimate child that is actually his, seeing it as an opportunity to get his half-brother out of the way so he can have his father's empire all to himself.
A New Mexico cattle man and his strong-willed daughter clash over land and love.