When the Sioux swept from the hills everyone in the waggon train expected nothing but death. For this was the time when the Indians rode unchecked and claimed the Mid-West for their own. Of all the waggon train only two people escaped with their lives; Big Jim Ratford and Sam Strake; twelve years old and already a man. For ten years he lived with the Sioux, and during that time he came to learn Indian ways and Indian fighting. He grew to manhood and took the test of initiation to become a warrior. He rode the warpath against the dread Cochise, the Scourge of the South, and became blood brother to a young warrior.

It was a good life, but it could not last. The land-hungry whites became irresistible, the buffalo herds were slaughtered, and in desperation, the Indians sued for peace.

This is a story of the Redman, his ways, his life, his problems and of the tremendous cultural changes which took place in the West during the years just before and after the Civil War. It is a story which, in essence, is the literal truth. A fast-moving, exciting tale of the Old West, when men rode with watchful eyes and to be unwary was to be dead.

Three men had already failed to do what Temple Holliday was going to try - to tame the lawless town of Abilene. Since the rail-road had been pushed through mile upon mile of desert and mountain, through Indian country and hills infested with the men of the border gangs, the town had grown from a collection of wooden huts into a brawling, thundering town which knew no law and order.

There hadn't been a Sheriff there for more than four months since the last man to hold that post had been shot dead on the steps of the saloon, and they warned him that if he took on the job, he'd have both the cattle bosses and the gamblers on his neck.

Holliday didn't have too much choice in the matter. Both his father and brother had been gunned down by the lawless breed and he decided that if there was going to be a fight, then he might as well start it. A man who rode and lived with vengeance and anger in his heart fights anything which stands in his way and continues to fight as long as he is alive.

So Temple Holliday set himself for a long, drawn-out battle, determined that if he had to, he'd take on every gunslick in the town before he'd back up.

The Oregon Trail. The long, dangerous trail taken by the emigrant trains of covered wagons setting out from Independence, Missouri, for the furthest flung frontier of the old West, Oregon. A magic land to the early settlers, with its fertile soil, mild climate and adequate rainfall.

But untold dangers and disappointment lay along the trail. And, for those who did reach Oregon, there was more bitterness and heartbreak.

This saga of Oregon's formative years is the story of courageous pioneers - men of vision who banded together to lead the fight for what they believed was their right, the chance to cultivate the precious land which they had claimed.

Scouting with a wagon train, Frank Guthrie had no intention of settling down in the new, untamed land. He would go back East to Independence and fix up to lead other settlers. Then, in a night of chaos and turmoil, he has his mind changed for him.