Raton Pass is a curious western based on the rules of Community Property. Dennis Morgan and Patricia Neal portray a recently married husband and wife, each of whom owns half of a huge cattle ranch. Neal is a tad more ambitious than her husband, and with the help of a little legal chicanery she tries to obtain Morgan's half of the spread. He balks, so she hires a few gunslingers to press the issue. In a 1951 western, the greedy party usually came to a sorry end; Raton Pass adheres strictly to tradition.
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 he nor the boys know that a gang of cattle thieves is stalking them.
Gene responds to cattle rustling by stringing barbed wire all around his range.
When Steve Harper chases down some rustlers, he loses his gun in the ensuing fistfight. After Wilson is killed, Steve's gun is found nearby and he as arrested. Jimmy Wilson breaks him out of jail and he heads after the real killer.
A posse discovers a trio of men they suspect of murder and cow theft and are split between handing them over to the law or lynching them on the spot.
Outlaws attempting to kidnap Steve Blaine from a stagecoach are ran off by the sharpshooting of his sister, Sally and rescuers Jimmy Wakely and Cannonball Taylor. Steve is investigating his father's sudden death after charges of theft from the Sloan/Carson mine. Sloan is killed after Wakely learns that ore is being smuggled across the Mexican border into the mine, and then sold at the higher U.S. prices
The conflict between a railroader and a stage line owner is being aggravated by bad guys who are sabotaging both sides. Roy and Gabby mediate the conflict and expose the bad guys.
Dorothy, and her big city lawyer boyfriend, return to the Lazy 'B' ranch to read her late father's will. For Dorothy to inherit everything, she must stay on the ranch for 5 years. If she does not, everything goes to Buck, who is the manager. She does not like Buck, so she makes a deal with the wrong people for cattle and then the outlaws go to the ranch to get the $10,000 from her. But Buck is on the job.
A cattle inspector runs a rustling ring on the side.
A band of murderous cowboys has imposed a reign of terror on the town of Warlock. With the sheriff humiliatingly run out of town, the residents hire the services of Clay Blaisedell as de facto town marshal. He arrives along with his friend, Tom Morgan, and sets about restoring law and order on his own terms whilst also overseeing the establishment of a gambling house and saloon.
A peace-loving man named Ben Kane takes a job as deputy marshal of Lords, in the old West. Kane is no lawman, but he accepts the badge because he has an old score to settle with the town's chief trouble-maker. Once on the job, Kane must also deal with a young sharpshooter named Billy Young and a sharp and sassy saloon dancer, Lily.
After escaping from jail, outlaw Wes McQueen is convinced by his old partner in crime to do one last heist.
Jack has been called in to investigate stage robberies where the stolen gold bullion mysteriously disappears, He finds the Professor, an elderly ex-con, and convincing him they used to work together, gets the Professor to get him in to the gang. Now posing as an outlaw, he learns what the Professor does with the bullion, but he is in trouble when his true identity is revealed.
A notorious outlaw is recruited by a cattle buyer, secret boss of a gang of cattle rustlers, to impersonate the town sheriff, who is the outlaw's twin brother; and complications ensue, as the sheriff, now a hostage, is on the eve of his marriage while the outlaw's cantina-dancer girlfriend has followed him to town and is at risk of exposing him.
A Western-genre narrative, loosely woven from old clips from B-Western features.
Bandit Cheyenne Harry reforms because of the faith placed in him by Molly Young and her father. Soon, however, Harry is lured from the straight and narrow when he meets his old friend Ben Kent and consents to participate in Kent's plan of robbing a stagecoach.
Cheyenne Harry tries to help his outlaw friend Padden evade arrest after Padden has drunkenly shot another man. In the end, the two mismatched friends fight it out, leaving Padden dead. In a romantic subplot, Harry's fiancée Alice leaves him, but finally returns.
When three Texas Rangers try to investigate kidnapped Mexicans being used as forced labor in the mines of Silver Bullet, they are framed for murder by the town's corrupt sheriff.
Stephen Westcott and Ed Martin scheme to put Jane Travers' wagon line out of business. They want to use it take over all the wagon- train traffic going west. Hoppy, California and Lucky must make sure that doesn't happen.
When he runs for sheriff, Hoppy is beaten by Jerry Doyle, the gutless wonder voted for by every crook in town. When Hoppy moves to have the new sheriff impeached, outlaw leader Tad Hammond hires forty gunslingers to stop him. Stop Hoppy? Hah!