Wagon Train
★ 6.6 · 8 seasons
The series initially starred veteran movie supporting actor Ward Bond as the wagon master, later replaced upon his death by John McIntire, and Robert Horton as the scout, subsequently replaced by lookalike Robert Fuller a year after Horton had decided to leave the series. The series was inspired by the 1950 film Wagon Master directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. and Ward Bond, and harkens back to the early widescreen wagon train epic The Big Trail starring John Wayne and featuring Bond in his first major screen appearance playing a supporting role. Horton's buckskin outfit as the scout in the first season of the television series resembles Wayne's, who also played the wagon train's scout in the earlier film.
Season 1 · 39 episodes
- E1
The Willy Moran Story
Willy Moran, a drunk, is hired by a wagon as a driver. He is an army buddy of the Major, but is used as a fall guy by a member of the train who wants to rob it. When the battle starts, Willy uses his army skills to turn the battle.
- E2
The Jean LeBec Story
The train cannot get supplies after a member kills the son of the man who owns most of St. Joseph in self-defense. He escapes with the help of Flint but when he learns the train is still being denied supplies he returns to face hanging.
- E3
The John Cameron Story
John Cameron, from Philadelphia, heads west with his wife to start a new life. Her flirtatious ways may get the better of her when three trappers come into camp offering fresh buffalo and thinking she might be more available than she is.
- E4
The Ruth Owens Story
Ruth Owens remarries and is moving west with her new husband. When her brother comes looking for her, he stirs up trouble for her about her past and himself because he just killed a man.
- E5
The Les Rand Story
Les Rand, just released from prison for murder, goes back home to kill the man he held responsible; his father, the doctor. Meanwhile, Flint is there to fetch the doctor to help someone injured. Les vows that no one will stand in his way.
- E6
The Nels Stack Story
A pacifist since the war, Nels Stack stands up to any man prejudiced against another. When his own beliefs are tested in the face of an impending Indian attack against the wagon train, he has to decide who he is going to defend.
- E7
The Emily Rossiter Story
Emily Rossiter had a young daughter to care for. She met and married someone she felt she could trust. When she found out this was misplaced, getting the daughter away from him and into a better life becomes her main goal.
- E8
The John Darro Story
When the train picks up an abandoned drunk on the trail, he exposes John Darro to be the reviled coward John Thurman who abandoned a previous train during a massacre. Darro's young son Tommy is unable to cope with the truth.
- E9
The Charles Avery Story
Lieutenant Avery has a mission. Deliver a peace treaty and the chief's daughter. But he has a secret vendetta that may jeopardize everyone's hope for peace.
- E10
The Mary Halstead Story
Mary Halstead is in search of a son she gave up a long time ago. With months to live, she comes west on the trail of someone who could be her son, but he may also turn out to be a notorious outlaw.
- E11
The Zeke Thomas Story
The wagon train stops in a newly built town to get water they had always been able to get before for free. Wanting money now, and at a steep price, has the Major upset. Sending Flint also uncovers a wife of a passenger thought dead.
- E12
The Riley Gratton Story
Riley Gratton has always drifted from here to there, a smooth tongue getting him whatever he needed. When he tries to do the same with some folks on the Major's wagon train, what comes next may be the least of his worries.
- E13
The Clara Beauchamp Story
When a new officer and troops kill an Indian brave and the post commander's drunken bored wife insults the Chief, Flint is forced to act as a neutral agent between the Army and Indians and save the wagon train.
- E14
The Julie Gage Story
A head strong Julie Gage is determined to ride her wagon to California. Losing her pa to fever, many suitors step up to help but she'll have none of it until one comes down with fever himself and she's the only one who will tend to him.
- E15
The Cliff Grundy Story
Mortally wounded in a buffalo stampede, Cliff Grundy's friend Flint stays when the wagon train leaves. Manson says he will help but his reasons for staying become clear as Cliff keeps saying he has a goldmine somewhere and he's recovering.
- E16
The Luke O'Malley Story
Luke O'Malley is running from an outlaw who said he would kill him for turning him into the law. Since he won't believe he didn't do it, he takes his two kids and joins Adams' wagon train disguised as a parsons, who doesn't act like one.
- E17
The Jesse Cowan Story
The Cowans and Beals have been feuding a long time. Bob and Jesse return from the war and find their family dead and the Beals have joined a wagon train. Revenging their family is just the start of what Major Adams must now deal with.
- E18
The Gabe Carswell Story
Gabe Carswell wants his son to join the whites because of what he sees coming for the Indians. When his son refuses he takes him to the wagon train heading for California but the Arapaho are getting set to attack.
- E19
The Honorable Don Charlie Story
Don Charlie is a gambler and womanizer and makes no excuses for it. When he meets a woman who wants to marry him there may be trouble because the Major promised her uncle that she would make it safely to San Francisco.
- E20
The Dora Gray Story
Dora Gray has made some poor choices in her life. Just wanting to get to San Francisco, her latest one involves someone who sells army guns to the Indians and Flint finds himself right in the middle of it.
- E21
The Annie MacGregor Story
The MacGregor clan decides to come to America and start a new life. The wagon trains going to California have had a hard time dealing with their different customs. Can Major Adams' be any different?
- E22
The Bill Tawnee Story
Bill Tawnee served his country heroically. When Major Adams recognizes him on the trail and sees he is unable to wake, he asks his wife to join his wagon train even though there is plenty of anti-Indian sentiment afloat.
- E23
The Mark Hanford Story
Jack Hanford built his wealth to give his son. He turns it all down to honor his Cheyenne heritage when his mother dies. To make matters worse in his son's eyes, he had sent for a woman he briefly met to replace her even before she died.
- E24
The Bernal Sierra Story
Revolutionary Bernal Sierra joins the train finding the wife of his dead friend married to Casey Reardon who sold guns to the Mexican revolutionaries. Bernal is suspicious of Casey, his brothers, and Perdita over missing gold.
- E25
The Marie Dupree Story
A beautiful woman riding with the train likes flirting. When she gets mixed up with the wrong man, she strings along a boy on the train in order to make him jealous, playing one man's love against another's.
- E26
A Man Called Horse
Horse, a name he comes to be called, is searching for himself. Since he doesn't feel that he found it in Boston, where he grew up, he tries out west, under the watchful eye of a small tribe of Crow.
- E27
The Sarah Drummond Story
During a storm, Flint takes shelter at a farmhouse. He soon discovers the husband is refusing his wife the care of a midwife and before it's too late for her he needs to find out why.
- E28
The Sally Potter Story
Sally Potter hitches a ride on the wagon train but being pretty helps and hurts her. Someone she knew catches up to the train and wants to remind her of who she is and where she came from, possibly ruining what she wants for her future.
- E29
The Daniel Barrister Story
Faith is tested when a man's wife is injured and he refuses medical aid. When Flint rides to the nearest town to get a doctor, he finds they have their own problems: a smallpox epidemic.
- E30
The Major Adams Story (1)
During the Civil War Charlie Wooster joins Bill Hawks under the command of Major Seth Adams. When Adams is seriously wounded saving Hawks's life he must struggle to survive, while dreaming of the girl he left behind.
- E31
The Major Adams Story (2)
Years after the Civil War, Major Adams gets a second chance with his lost love Ranie, who had married in his absence. But happiness doesn't always come easy, as a sinister rival and a dark secret attest.
- E32
The Charles Maury Story
Disguised as Yank soldiers, a band of confederate marauders blend into the wagon train, planning on robbing everyone. They are at first stopped but a member of the train helps the man in charge when she discovers the truth to his identity.
- E33
The Dan Hogan Story
In a growing town, Seth meets a friend from his distant past. He remembers how they met and the circumstances bringing them west. When his friend's home is threatened, not ever wearing a gun surprisingly helps him rather than the reverse.
- E34
The Ruttledge Munroe Story
Ruttledge Munroe joins the wagon train on the trail. It's noticed right off his odd sense of humor but when he saves the major's life, it is forgotten until he kills someone else and the real reason he joined up is revealed.
- E35
The Rex Montana Story
On one final push to the west, a wild west showman runs into some old friends. Some that were part of a massacre that almost cost them their lives and one man his sanity.
- E36
The Cassie Tanner Story
Trail hardened Cassie Tanner joins the train, and sets her eye on Major Adams. But the train desperately needs horses, and she may be the only one who can make the dangerous journey to buy them.
- E37
The John Wilbot Story
Tensions are running high in the train between northerners and southerners traveling west. As trouble escalates one passenger with a noticeable limp, John Wilbot, is accused of being John Wilkes Booth, who many believe is still alive.
- E38
The Monty Britton Story
Low on water, Flint scouts for more. When three water holes are dry or poisoned, Fort Paiute seems their only hope but he has to make it back to the wagon train on foot and the only other man who knows the way is believed to be a deserter.
- E39
The Sacramento Story
At the end of a long journey, lives were lost. Some made it with their dreams intact. Flint tries to help two of the passengers with theirs and almost bites off too much. Politics are involved as well as unsolicited trips to the Far East.
Season 2 · 38 episodes
- E1
Around the Horn
Planning to sail to Boston, the Major, Hawks and Charlie are instead shanghaied to New Orleans where they meet a Captain who has different ideas on raising his child and running a ship.
- E2
The Juan Ortega Story
Juan awakens to the sound of three men hanging his beloved father. Joining the wagon train, he comes across one of the three, tortured by Indians. He nurses him back to health but only under the guise of looking for the other two killers.
- E3
The Jennifer Churchill Story
Jennifer Churchill, pampered all her life, runs away from a smothering lifestyle and pending marriage, and joins the wagon train. With bounty hunters on her heels, she finds Flint, a man who she wants but doesn't want her.
- E4
The Tobias Jones Story
Major Adams allows two stowaways, Tobias Jones and his young friend Midge, to stay with the train. But Tobias is in trouble due to his drinking, and things get worse when he's accused of murder.
- E5
The Liam Fitzmorgan Story
Liam Fitzmorgan has come from Ireland on a mission to kill an informer he believes is traveling with the train. However, his mission is complicated when he falls in love with his target's daughter.
Season 3 · 37 episodes
- E1
The Stagecoach Story
The men are returning to St. Louis by stagecoach except for Flint - until he becomes the driver to help a friend. They are forced to take a detour to Mexico by other passengers - one of whom denies knowing Flint who is in love with her.
- E2
The Greenhorn Story
At the beginning of any wagon train trip, the challenges faced by everyone turns a greenhorn into a seasoned veteran, even if those may mean death of those they love or some other loss.
- E3
The C.L. Harding Story
A reporter has joined the wagon train. When the Major finds out he is a she, he finds his hands full especially when her looks and curiosity jeopardize everyone's safety and their right to vote.
- E4
The Estaban Zamora Story
Flint find a young man bleeding to death and a knife nearby. He takes the body to sheriff who identifies the man as the youngest Zamora brother. His father is on the train from Spain. He feels duty bound to kill the murderer.
- E5
The Elizabeth McQueeny Story
Elizabeth McQueeny is traveling with her girls, heading to a finishing school in the West. When her real purpose becomes known, all the females want her gone but her worth to all shows itself before that can happen.
Season 4 · 38 episodes
- E1
Wagons Ho!
While preparing to return to St. Joseph, the men read the story "Wagon Ho" written and printed by Samuel T. Evans about his trip as a naive young Irishman headed west and his experiences and adventure on the trail.
- E2
The Horace Best Story
Adams' "distant" cousin Horace arrives hoping to be a wagon master. His trading skills allow him to steal the crew and vendors from Adams but when Adams confronts him with the decisions he must make on the trail, there are second thoughts.
- E3
The Albert Farnsworth Story
Arrogant British Colonel Albert Farnsworth causes an uproar in camp and puts the wagon train in danger of Indian attack, resulting in the capture of a young girl by the Cheyenne and the mortal wounding of his long time aide.
- E4
The Allison Justis Story
When someone yells horse thief, Flint shoots a man only to find he is the husband of a childhood friend. Flint learns the man is mayor and highly respected. The question of whether he killed an innocent man bothers him and the man's son.
- E5
The Jose Morales Story
Bill Hawkes is leading 3 wagons through Indian territory. They run into trouble with Mexician bandits lead by Lee Marvin. When the 2 groups must band together to fight off an Indian attack, certain biases & assumptions are thrown away.
Season 5 · 37 episodes
- E1
The Captain Dan Brady Story
Captain Dan Brady, a colorful, boisterous and well known veteran frontier scout who is famous throughout the East, is demanding to be taken on as trail scout. Hale faces a dilemma as he will lose a Government mail contract that is necessary to finance the wagon train if he doesn't hire Brady. But he will lose Flint, angered by Brady's bad advice to members of the wagon train, who threatens to quit if Brady stays on.
- E2
The Kitty Albright Story
Kitty Albright is a registered nurse who's stagecoach is attacked and destroyed. Flint agrees to let her use her new skill on the wagon train. She quickly becomes disturbed at the lack of hygiene and health in general around the train.
- E3
The Maud Frazer Story
Maud Frazer takes command of her wagon train after all the men are killed. Flint tries to dissuade Maud from going through hostile Indian country where there is gold.. She proceeds anyway but is forced to change plans.
- E4
The Selena Hartnell Story
Selena Hartnell joins the train after bandits attack her wagon. Later, she reveals she is a bounty hunter looking for William Barrett, a murderer on the run. It turns out that Barrett is Will Cottrell, the leader of pacifists on the train.
- E5
The Clementine Jones Story
Clementine Jones is in the process of being thrown out of a town when a bank robbery occurs. One of the fugitives ends up joining the wagon train on the same wagon as one of the bank robbers is trying to escape on.
Season 6 · 37 episodes
- E1
The Wagon Train Mutiny
When Comancheros wipe out a small wagon train ahead of them, Chris sends Bill and Duke to check it out. They find a young wounded Comanchero who tells them they are to be attacked. Chris' actions cause a mutiny.
- E2
The Caroline Casteel Story
Indian captive Caroline Casteel is traded to a man who brings her to the wagon train. She encounters prejudice and hostility from many of the train members. But her biggest hurdle comes when her family, who had long given up hope, arrives.
- E3
The Madame Sagittarius Story
Madame Delphine Sagittarius asks to be picked by the wagon train at Beaver City. The town is expelling her as a con woman. Charlie is initially against it but when no one else on the train accepts her, he becomes her lone supporter.
- E4
The Martin Gatsby Story
Wealthy merchant Martin Gatsby, a man with little room for compassion for others, wants the wagon train to keep rolling and demands that Hale leave Caleb Lefton and his family behind, because the inexperienced Lefton is causing delays.
- E5
The John Augustus Story
John Augustus in a game of cards with a Chinese merchant wins a beautiful Chinese girl. But when he takes her on the wagon train, other passengers ask Hale to have him and the girl kicked off the train for their "indecent" relationship.
Season 7 · 32 episodes
- E1
The Molly Kincaid Story
Having just left St. Joseph, Hale tells everyone there are no Indians when in fact two escaped Comanche captives steal two horses and show up at the wagon trains first stop. The female wants to kill a man there - her cowardly husband.
- E2
The Fort Pierce Story
As the wagon train reaches Fort Pierce it is in dangerous Indian country. Chris is hoping the Army will provide an escort when they leave, but the Colonel refuses due to Army orders. In fact, he wants the lone woman there to leave with the train.
- E3
The Gus Morgan Story
A tough railroad executive and his younger college educated brother are guided by Chris up a mountain to scout a route. When is accidentally shot by the younger brother, the older brother is forced to make a tough decision he may regret.
- E4
The Widow O'Rourke Story
When Duke and Charlie do not return from a scouting assignment, Chris sends Cooper who has a pretty good idea what lays ahead. The Chinese widow of an Irish Ship Captain wants Coop to carry on her husband's empire.
- E5
The Robert Harrison Clarke Story
Chris and Cooper along with a British journalist accompany civilians surveying for the Army when they come across an Army troop that has been massacred except for two survivors. This opens the journalist's eyes to the real America.
Season 8 · 26 episodes
- E1
The Bob Stuart Story
Ex-Marshal Bob Stuart and his new wife are among three wagons joining Chris Hale's wagon train. Scout Cooper Smith is assigned to escort the new wagons to join up with the main train but there is blood, bad blood, between the scout and the ex-lawman. Entering the mix are old friends from Cooper Smith's past who also have an ax to grind against Bob Stuart. Coop soon becomes caught in between the man he was and the man he's become as his friends set out to destroy Bob Stuart and anyone who gets in the way.
- E2
The Hide Hunters
Hide hunters, hunters who kill buffalo for their hides only, have temporarily joined up with the wagon train. One of their number, Gib Ryker, is a sociopath who enjoys antagonizing young Barnaby West. With the train desperately needing fresh meat, Cooper Smith, along with Barnaby, sets off with the hide hunters to look for buffalo. Along the way Gib continues to bait Barnaby, much to Coop's dismay until Barnaby is forced to defend himself, with disastrous results. Now Barnaby has to face Gib's brother Zach, who's out for revenge.
- E3
The John Gillman Story
John Gillman being chased and shot in the leg by a posse escapes via a river. He is found downriver nearly passes out by a young orphan girl Abigail. She takes a liking to him but he tries to rebuff her. However, events cause a change.
- E4
The Race Town Story
Bill accompanies Barnaby to Sam Race's tent city of "entertainers", where a girl from the train that Barnaby likes has taken a job, not as a singer, as she had thought, but as a saloon girl. Bill hopes to keep Barnaby out of trouble with the gambling and con games Race runs, but trouble and humiliation is just what they both find.
Cast
John McIntire
Christopher Hale
Robert Fuller
Cooper Smith
Michael Burns
Barnaby West
Frank McGrath
Charlie Wooster
Terry Wilson
Bill Hawks