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 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
Hoss falls prey to the wiles of a beautiful woman with a gambling addiction and refuses to believe she's only interested in his money in spite of Adam's proof to the contrary. Hoss and Little Joe travel to Sacramento to help the widow of an old friend of the Cartwrights. Hoss discovers that the wid
Adam rides up on some Indians wanting to harm a white woman they believed was a mountain spirit. He kills them but not before they wound him. The woman nurses him back to health but the rest of the tribe is still out there looking for her. While traveling, Adam is wounded by Indians and left for de
Inspector Leduque comes from New Orleans to Virginia City to take Ben Cartwright back for a 20 year murder. When Ben declares publicly that he is withdrawing from the Governor's race, the townsfolk are upset not just about this but Little Joe has also been accused of gunning down Leduque's deputy in
A bank robber takes a job with the Cartwrights to prevent the sheriff from tracking down his accomplices. After John Pardo and his gang rob the Virginia City Bank, they go into hiding on the Ponderosa. One of Pardo's men, Sam Kirby, goes to the Cartwrights. The plan is for him to hire on as a ranch
Ranchers are being killed, cattle stolen, and retired U.S. Deputy Marshall Denver McKee leads various posses after the suspects but never seems to be able to find them. In the meantime, McKee seems to have plenty of money to take care of his gorgeous daughter back home from schooling in the East. A
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
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
After Joe kills a man in self-defense who tried to set fire to the Ponderosa to clear himself some land, he has to take his lively, feisty, wild, daughter home, and she, and her relatives, are now determined to kill Joe. Joe tries to stop a homesteader he finds starting a fire on the Ponderosa and
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
Lord and Lady Dunsford arrive at the Ponderosa to visit their old friend Ben. Adam finds himself the object of Lady Dunsford's attentions when she deems him to be a braver man than her husband. Adam then takes the couple on a hunting trip, where Lord Dunsford freezes while attempting to shoot a coug
