Angry with the way a beautiful deaf girl is treated by her father, a sheepherder living in a remote mountain cabin, Little Joe takes it upon himself to teach her sign language, so they can communicate better. His plan backfires when the young woman falls in love with him and the girl's brutish neigh
Charlie Trent used to be an Army scout. Now he's the town drunk. Hoss helps him regain his self-esteem when he has him volunteer to lead a gold-bearing troop through the desert where there's very little water. An Army wagon train carrying gold is in Virginia City getting supplies. When their scout,
Adam, Hoss, and new friend Sam Board act as escorts for a wagon train of Quakers who are heading to California to purchase land for their settlement. While Adam falls for the group leader's daughter, Reginia, Board plots to rob the group of its life savings. A wagon train of Quakers from Ohio are p
Little Joe comes upon a gypsy girl. Frightened, she runs and falls becoming unconscious. When she wakes, they discover that she believes she is bewitched and so do her people who banished her. Her birth under a dark star has fostered this belief. Little Joe, smitten, must rescue her from this belief
Adam is bushwhacked by three deserters from the Army who are hiding out on the Ponderosa. When Ben pursues them, he is hindered by a Captain Bolton, the arrogant commander of a military posse who is also after the men. Three army prisoners have escaped Ft Dayton. Mertz still has chains around his w
About to set out on a cattle drive, Ben hires a young drifter named Sam Jackson as one of his drovers. What he doesn't know is that Jackson is really outlaw Johnny Logan, who signed on to the drive because he knew it was going to pass near the town of Waycross, and Logan is determined to kill the Wa
The Cartwrights come to the aid of a Chinese-American stable hand accused of murder. Opposing them is a manipulative mayoral candidate who wants all "foreigners" to leave Virginia City. After Hop Sing is beaten in Virginia City, the Cartwrights realize the prejudice against the Chinese in Californi
The Cartwrights construct a grist mill to help neighbor Tom Edwards, a disabled man who bitterly blames Ben for his condition. Tom is being manipulated by hired hand Ezekiel, who's not only cheating him out of his money, but also intends to steal his wife. The Cartwrights' neighbor Tom Edwards has
A neighboring rancher, Andy, is good friends with Ben, but his son (Todd) wants to sell their land for mining operations which will spoil the water rights agreement that Andy and Ben made years ago. Ben and Adam find their neighbor Todd McCarren surveying the property line. Todd says, rudely, that
Dolly Kincaid so feed up with her extremely dominant, controlling, sheriff father, that she runs away with her boyfriend. She later finds out he is the leader of some murderous bank robbers and when they kidnap Hoss and Joe, she still sticks with him. Joe's friend Dolly Kincaid rebels against her a
The Cartwrights try to disprove the validity of a Spanish land grant to stop the De La Cuesta family from seizing part of the Ponderosa and all of the Carson Valley settlers' homestead lands. The episode opens with a settler being evicted from his land by some Spanish vacqueros. When the couple ins
Adam's life is saved by an enigmatic U. S. Marshal who has come to Virginia City to arrest a friend of the Cartwrights. Adam is rescued from an ambush by Gerald Eskith, a lawman who is on a mission to Virginia City. He's looking for Jackson Blaine, a friend of the Cartwrights, claiming he needs Bla
