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.
Wagon Train (Season 3)
The Stagecoach Story (Episode 1)
Air date: 1959-09-30
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: 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.
The Greenhorn Story (Episode 2)
Air date: 1959-10-07
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: 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.
The C.L. Harding Story (Episode 3)
Air date: 1959-10-14
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: 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.
The Estaban Zamora Story (Episode 4)
Air date: 1959-10-21
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: 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.
The Elizabeth McQueeny Story (Episode 5) 8.0
Writer: Allen H. Miner
Air date: 1959-10-28
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: 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.
The Martha Barham Story (Episode 6)
Air date: 1959-11-04
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Flint and a long time Sioux Indian friend reunite but trouble is brewing as the Cheyenne are on the warpath and in their way is Fort Hastings, an old flame of his and her new Army Captain fiancé.
The Cappy Darrin Story (Episode 7)
Air date: 1959-11-11
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Old salt Cappy Darrin is on the train with his orphaned grandson Tuck. But Cappy's daughter granted custody of Tuck to his uncle, and as their parting nears Cappy finds he is reluctant to let Tuck go.
The Felizia Kingdom Story (Episode 8)
Air date: 1959-11-18
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Tough as nails Felizia Kingdom controls an enormous amount of land by force, and no one is good enough to inherit the responsibility. When Flint handles her henchmen with ease, she decides he's the man for the job.
The Jess MacAbee Story (Episode 9)
Air date: 1959-11-25
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: Flint, scouting ahead of the wagon train, is in search of fresh meat. With prospects none too good he comes upon a hidden paradise, green and lush and offering far more than he expected especially for a single man.
The Danny Benedict Story (Episode 10)
Air date: 1959-12-02
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: He says his name is Tom Smith but a young man Major Adams meets on the trail refuses to join the wagon train and won't say why. When he does find out he meets an old friend and why the boy is so tortured.
The Vittorio Bottecelli Story (Episode 11)
Air date: 1959-12-16
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: The King orders his womanizing nephew to San Francisco. He joins the wagon train but causes the Major problems as the husbands are complaining but he may have lost his heart to someone who understands.
The St. Nicholas Story (Episode 12)
Air date: 1959-12-23
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Almost Christmas eve, the wagon train deals with a happy time, the perils that go with hostile Indians and a little lost boy who may have already been captured by those same hostiles.
The Ruth Marshall Story (Episode 13)
Air date: 1959-12-30
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: As the wagon train moves through Sioux territory, a man named Marshall asks for help in finding his daughter, Ruth, who apparently was taken by Indians following a raid eleven years ago. The girl would now be 19 years old. Flint McCullough goes in search of the girl, is injured in an ambush by a lone Indian, and is treated by a blue-eyed white woman living with four wolves. The woman communicates only through sign-language and is held in reverence by the local Sioux. Meanwhile the Indian who ambushed Flint and was wounded in the process reports back to his father, Red Cloud. Red Cloud learns that the ""Woman Who Lives with Wolves"" is treating a white man and orders Flint to be brought to his camp for possible punishment. The Wolf Woman intervenes and has Flint returned to the wagon train along with a book which bears the name ""Ruth Marshall"" on its flyleaf.
The Lita Foladaire Story (Episode 14)
Air date: 1960-01-06
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: Never having met Lita Foladaire, Major Adams learned a lot about her past, the town she grew up in, the people who loved her and most importantly what happened to her surrounded by those same people.
The Colonel Harris Story (Episode 15)
Air date: 1960-01-13
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: Flint goes to Fort Young to see the Harris family and Bowman Lewis who were friends from his youth. He finds Mrs. Harris dead and her husband swearing to wipe out all Indians including Lewis who leads the Comanche and his mother, Princess. English
The Marie Brandt Story (Episode 16)
Air date: 1960-01-20
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Trying to give her son a chance, Maidie Brant is found by the wagon train. Needing fresh horses after a cougar attack, she is reluctant to say why she won't go back to town and buy some but would rather pay top dollar for the Major's.
The Larry Hanify Story (Episode 17)
Air date: 1960-01-27
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: On his deathbed, Joe asks Flint to look after his 17-year old son Larry Hanify and get him to California. There was one catch. His latest escapade put him in jail awaiting trial for armed robbery.
The Clayton Tucker Story (Episode 18)
Air date: 1960-02-10
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Taking a dangerous route through the desert to join up with the wagon train, a small band of settlers take a turn for the worse when they lose the one man leading them, their scout, and now differ on where they need to go now.
The Benjamin Burns Story (Episode 19)
Air date: 1960-02-17
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: One dry water hole is normal but when the wagon train has two, Flint and Ben Burns lead a party to find a legend that only the Indians speak of, Shining Water. Troubles await them but the worst may be a too green city boy.
The Ricky and Laurie Bell Story (Episode 20)
Air date: 1960-02-24
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: Laurie and Ricky Bell uproot and go West, leaving their comforts in Baltimore. When she announces she is pregnant, he is less than happy as he feels she has just made their lives more complicated especially where it concerns his needs.
The Tom Tuckett Story (Episode 21) 8.0
Writer: Jean Holloway
Air date: 1960-03-02
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Ever since he was young, Tom Tuckett has been sent to good schools and looked after by an unknown benefactor. When he joins the wagon train he feels he's about to find out who that is but it isn't who he imagined.
The Tracy Sadler Story (Episode 22)
Air date: 1960-03-09
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: David Forest always believed his father to be as he claimed. When Tracy Sadler joins the wagon train his beliefs are altered when he slowly and painfully learns the truth about his past.
The Alexander Portlass Story (Episode 23)
Air date: 1960-03-16
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Kidnapped, Flint is forced to scout and find a lost Aztec treasure. As some of the men were previously thrown off the wagon train, their unfriendliness is certain unless he can help them find the lost treasure of Montezuma.
The Christine Elliott Story (Episode 24)
Air date: 1960-03-23
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Her father on his deathbed, Christine Elliot decides to fulfill his dream of a boys school and joins the wagon train. A good start: the eleven boys he already has. One man is determined to stop her unless he collects his pound of flesh.
The Joshua Gilliam Story (Episode 25)
Air date: 1960-03-30
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: Bill and the Major find a man lying hurt, a meal for the buzzards. When he meets an innocent woman on the wagon train who has an inheritance waiting for her, he shows other skills besides being just a schoolteacher and her mother is wary.
The Maggie Hamilton Story (Episode 26)
Air date: 1960-04-06
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: When their daughter runs away from the wagon train, the Hamiltons hire Flint to bring her back. With renegades in the area, he soon discovers how spoiled Maggie really is and they still manage to make it back in one piece.
The Jonas Murdock Story (Episode 27)
Air date: 1960-04-13
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Out of meat and low on food, the wagon train must not kill any wildlife or all will face the wrath of the local Indians. The one holdout is Jonas Murdock who has always lived outside the rules and doesn't consider a rabbit an issue.
The Amos Gibbon Story (Episode 28)
Air date: 1960-04-20
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: After an argument with Major Adams, Flint leaves the wagon train and mozies up to a bar at a nearby town. What he doesn't know is the locals are shanghaiing strangers for slave labour in the mine and no one on the train knows where he went.
Trial for Murder (1) (Episode 29)
Air date: 1960-04-27
Runtime: 51 min
Overview: When a well thought of member of the wagon train is found dead, Adams needs to prevent mob rule and make sure a lawful trial takes place. The accused who was not well liked is found passed out with the rifle used in the murder.
Trial for Murder (2) (Episode 30)
Air date: 1960-05-04
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: When the deceased's wife arrives, the people on the wagon train learn that the murdered man has a dark past, and this could be a case of Cain & Abel - or perhaps something or someone in the dead-man's past came home-to-roost.
The Countess Baranof Story (Episode 31)
Air date: 1960-05-11
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Countess Baranof is desperate to get to Alaska to claim her family fortune, and with no horses she applies her considerable charms on Flint. But she's not the one Flint should worry about, as her bodyguard has a more sinister agenda.
The Dick Jarvis Story (Episode 32)
Air date: 1960-05-18
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: A boy hurt in a crippling accident and a domineering mother meet a runaway boy who she feels is making him do things outside his capabilities. Another accident reveals something unexpected since it may pit two friends against each other.
Dr. Swift Cloud (Episode 33)
Air date: 1960-05-25
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Thinking he is not welcome by the white man or his people, an educated Chiracua Indian returns to find prejudices among both of them and must find a way to overcome all of them before it is too late.
The Luke Grant Story (Episode 34)
Air date: 1960-06-01
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Luke Grant is found wandering the desert with one wish on his mind - kill me! Turned over to the wagon train by some friendly Chiracawa Indians, they slowly discover his identity and that there are Apaches on the war path and nearby.
The Charlene Brenton Story (Episode 35)
Air date: 1960-06-08
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: A baby girl sure has a rough start when she arrives on the stage with her dead mother. Plague is what people think killed her and then Charlie Wooster steps in to try to help - and well, you can imagine where it went from there.
The Sam Livingston Story (Episode 36)
Air date: 1960-06-15
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Abigail has lost her driver to the better paying mines. Her new driver says he owns a bank and a pig. The ride West reveals another side of him that takes at least the pig to change both heart and mind.
The Shadrack Bennington Story (Episode 37)
Air date: 1960-06-22
Runtime: 50 min
Overview: Shadrack Bennington has been a cavalier of the open road, not wanting to be tied down until he joins the wagon train, heading for San Francisco and a future even he couldn't anticipate.
