The Cartwrights join to help mystical blacksmith Sam Hill save the land his drunk, sea-dog father signed away to an old enemy, discover the circumstances behind his mother's death, and solve the mystery of why a tropical tree flourishes in spite of cold Nevada winters.

At the bedside of a seriously ill Adam, Ben thinks back to his days as a first mate on a sailing ship and his marriage to Adam's mother, Elizabeth Stoddard. 

Hoss helps out a shy inventor who needs financial backing to build a horseless carriage. Things do not go well until a slick promoter sells shares into the new automobile. But things turn sour when the promoter skips town.

Hoss suspects his rival for a woman's love was one of the masked vigilantes who hanged a man and his wife.

Little Joe is off to buy a gift for his pa's birthday. He's unaware that where he is heading the local Indians are on the war path and they've got him in their gun sights.

Jed Trask has been with the Sierra Mail & Stage Lines for many years. When a group of gunmen in the town of Latigo cuts off delivery of the goods and mail, he goes after those responsible with the help of some on the Virginia City council - the Cartwrights.

The Cartwrights challenge an arrogant and cruel British prizefighter, the Duke, and his alcoholic manager to a bout with John Heenan (the Benicia Boy), after the Cartwrights' meek friend J.D. gets pulverized by the Duke in a bar-fight. J.D. is adored by saloon girl Marge, but he has been too shy to return her affections. While the Cartwrights wait to see if Heenan will actually take the bout and come from San Francisco, the Duke pursues Marge and assaults her when she rebuffs him. When the manager comes to Marge's rescue, he too is beaten up by the Duke (who, it turns out, is the manager's brother). Infuriated by all this, Hoss Cartwright himself challenges the Duke, and knocks him out in the fourth round of a bare-knuckle fight refereed by Sheriff Roy Coffee. The Duke and his brother-manager reconcile in the humility of defeat, then learn that the Benicia Boy will accept the proposed bout, but only the Duke comes to San Francisco. The Duke apologizes to all he has offended while in Virginia City and heads west to fight Heenan.

Ross Marquette's behavior over the past few months can't be easily explained -- beating his wife, rustling cattle, robbing a stage, killing a man. Adam is determined to find out why his friend is acting so strangely before it's too late.

The Cartwrights deal with cattle rustlers.

Jock Henry is a very likeable fellow. Ask anyone. When he's given the job of collecting taxes, his peculiar methods of figuring out what people owe causes everyone to reconsider.

Hoss accidentally kills Willie the town drunk. His remorse may not be enough to stop Willie's hate-filled brother who only wants revenge even though the townspeople know it wasn't Hoss' fault.

Adam goes to Mexico to investigate the death of a friend, only to face hostile townspeople and the dead man's wife.

Hoss and Joe "rob" a bank for altruistic reasons and are pursued not by the law but by a more serious force, Ben and Adam.

A woman shows up to the Ponderosa claiming to have just married Ben. The problem is, Ben has never seen her before in his life! Adam West is a key player in this case of mistaken identity.

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. 

Hoss and Little Joe travel to Sacramento to help the widow of an old friend of the Cartwrights. Hoss discovers that the widow is a beautiful young woman and immediately falls in love with her. He brings her back to the Ponderosa where Adam and Little Joe soon discover that the woman is in love with Hoss's money, not him, which she needs to fund her gambling addiction. When Hoss refuses to believe his brothers, Adam is forced to provide demonstrable proof in Virginia City casino.

When 16-year-old Todd Grayson arrives from Boston to Virginia City, he is told that his father has been killed by Ben Cartwright. Ben shot Luke Grayson in self-defense, but Todd won't listen to this. The boy has only one thing in his head: to avenge his father by killing Ben Cartwright.

Arnie is a lonely man with big muscles, a little brain and an ugly face. He is friendly by nature, but when somebody jeers at him and calls him an ape, he becomes mad. Then he is very dangerous. Most people avoid Arnie, but Hoss recognizes something of his own nature in Arnie and wants to help him

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 neighbor resents her lavishing attention on the youngest Cartwright.

Adam rides up on some Indians trying to kidnap a white woman they believe to be white mountain woman 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 and their shaman believes she has the power to cure his tribe of a sickness they have.

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 Waycross sheriff--who is also his father.

Gunnar is a long-lost relative of the Cartwright family. When Gunnar arrives at the Ponderosa, the family takes him in for the evening. Gunnar is the brother to one of Ben Cartwright's late wives. Unbeknownst to the Cartwright family, Gunnar is also the leader of a band of criminals called The Comancheros. Little Joe is visiting his girlfriend away from the ranch. When Little Joe and his girlfriend are kidnapped by The Comancheros, the Cartwrights and Gunnar are forced into a difficult situation

Dolly Kincaid is so fed 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.

Jennifer Beale is abducted in the hopes her rich father, Joshua, the richest silver baron on the Comstock, will pay a $1M ransom. The plan unravels when the beautiful Della is killed and Hercules, who loves her, finds out who did it. 

When an Indian saves Ben Cartwright's life from a near fatal knife attack by another Indian, Ben later gives the Indian and his pregnant wife a strip of fertile farming land. Unfortunately the land is next to a very racist farmer and things turn deadly.

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 wagon train of Quakers from Ohio are passing through town heading to Slaytersville. Adam tags along as he is smitten with the leader's daughter. Little does he know that the man he just befriended in town has eyes on the gold they're carrying to their promised land.

The Cartwrights' neighbor Tom Edwards has lived as a paraplegic, ever since an accident involving Ben Cartwright and a gun. His ranch is going to waste. His wife Joyce is a longtime friend of Ben, and Ben decides to help the Edwards couple by making Tom a business proposition: the Cartwrights will build a grain mill on Edwards' land. In return, Ben only wants his investment money back, plus fifteen percent. Tom and his hired hand Ezekiel are suspicious of Ben, but Tom agrees to the deal. The Cartwright men build the mill, but tension begins to rise when Ezekiel makes comments which rekindle Tom's suspicion.

After a U.S. deputy marshal apparently saves Adam's life by gunning down two men who shot at him, he eventually reveals that he is in town to bring a close friend of the Cartwrights to San Francisco to testify in a statewide racketeering trial, but the Deputy Marshal's motives soon become suspect as to what he really wants to do with the reluctant witness.

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 outlaw gang robs Virginia City's bank and makes off with almost all of its money. The youngest member of the gang manages to get a job on the Ponderosa as a bronc buster with the intention of informing the bank robbers of any posses that may threaten their hideout. While Ben, Adam and Hoss welcome the newcomer, Little Joe becomes suspicious of his activities