Lotta Crabtree is hired by mining tycoon Alpheus Troy to lure one of the Cartwrights into town and hold him for ransom in exchange for Ponderosa...

Greedy opportunist Mark Burdette and his accomplice Early Thorne stir up trouble between the Paiute tribe and the citizens of Virginia City. Ben...

John Pennington and his crew want to mine the Ponderosa land by hydraulic means. Ben is totally against this method and evicts them in short order....

Trader Mike Wilson attempts to escape punishment by the Paiute Indians after mistreating two of their women, by placing the blame on Adam. A fierce...

Samuel Clemens arrives in Virginia City to write for the Territorial Enterprise at the same time a crooked politician tries to lay claim on the...

Little Joe is infatuated wih saloon owner Julia Bulette, whom he imagines is like his late mother. First episode to reveal backround details...

Adam defends the mining claim of Annie O' Toole in a court presided over by Judge Ben Cartwright. Annie comes to the Washoe Diggings with a claim to...

Adam and Hoss assist a German engineer in developing the concept of "square set timbering" in the mines. Based on fact, and the first episode not to...

In a flashback, the legendary prospector arrives on the Ponderosa and participates in the founding of Virginia City. Coincidentally, guest star Jack...

Virginia City is visited by actress Adah Issacs Menken, who happens to be an old acquaintance of Ben's. Joe is badly beaten by Adah's jealous...

Luther Bishop and Ben Cartwright have had an ongoing land dispute for a number of years, over a small tract called the Truckee Strip. One of...

Adam and Joe reluctantly join a group of vengeful townsmen, who are out to lynch the three men who supposedly killed Vannie Johnson. The posse is...

In a variation of "High Noon", Ben and Hoss must face a gang of outlaws practically all alone when most of Virginia City's citizens go into hiding. ...

This episode begins with Adam defending the honor of Sue Ellen Terry in a duel. No one gets shot because the other man misses Adam and Adam...

Hoss and Joe come across a pregnant Indian woman while hunting bighorn sheep and must deliver her baby. Despite touches of humor, including a scene...

Ben sends Hoss and Joe to Monterey to purchase an expensive seed bull. The first of Blocker and Landon's many comic misadventures, although the...

Because she is related to criminals, a young woman is ostracized by everyone but the the Cartwrights. She unwisely seeks solace with an ex-con...

As the Civil War approaches, Adam and Joe clash over which side to support. The situation is complicated by the arrival of Frederick Kyle, a...

In the first all-out comic episode of the series, Hoss and Joe travel to Kiowa Flats, Texas, where they are mistaken for the notorious Slade...

The Cartwrights encounter racial bigotry in Virginia City and end up protecting a Chinese boy from mob violence. Victor Sen Yung, in his largest...

In "The Spanish Grant", a young bargirl, Rosita Morales is pretending to be a Spanish noblewoman named Isabella Marie Inez de la Cuesta and at the...

A shiftless sheepherder, Jeb Drummond, encroaches his herd of sheep on the Ponderosa and refuses to budge. He resists all of Ben's attempts to throw...

When a tough U.S. Marshal from California arrests a Ponderosa hand, Dave Walker, for murder, Adam and Hoss go along to make sure their employee...

Nevada Territory is awaiting statehood, and Ben considers running for governor until he learns he is wanted for murder in New Orleans. Inspector...

After Adam is bushwhacked by three army deserters, Ben tracks them down, and tackles the brutal Captain Bolton who is pursuing them.

A restaurant owner whom Ben and Adam have confronted over stolen Ponderosa beef ends up dead one night. His daughter, Sally Byrnes runs the cafe and...

Adam takes Ben's friends, Lord Marion Dunsworth and Lady Beatrice, on a hunting expedition, and they are captured by a gang of crude thieves and...

In this comic episode, the first to take place far from the ranch, Ben, Hoss, and Joe deliver a herd to San Francisco. Although he warns his sons to...

Len Keith, a miner, wants to purchase some land adjacent to the Ponderosa from rancher Andy McKaren. Andy's son, Tod, is anxious to sell. Keith has...

Hoss takes Billy Allen, the young son of a convicted felon under his wing, then is forced to kill his father and Billy will not forgive him. The...

Joe falls in love with Tirza, an undeniably strange gypsy girl who says she is cursed and never does seem to "snap out of it". The first episode of...

Virginia City is plagued by organized crime, Sam Bryant and his gang. One of his men, Farmer Perkins, kills a storekeeper, and at his trial, the...