The BEST episodes of Wagon Train
Every episode of Wagon Train ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Wagon Train!
Wagon Train followed the trials and tribulations of pioneering families as they set out from the East to carve out a new life in the West soon after the American Civil War. For some of the travelers it was a happy ending, but not for all, which only heightened the drama along the way.
#1 - The Trace McCloud Story
Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/2/1964
A strangler is loose in the town of Bedrock so when the wagon train comes through it is joined by a good percentage of the town's population which it becomes apparent includes the strangler.
#2 - The Jose Maria Moran Story
Season 2 - Episode 34 - Aired 5/27/1959
The Major and party find a Pawnee Indian strung up and left to die. Back at the wagon train they find he is not who he appears to be. The mystery deepens as the Shoshonees, who hung him there, are still after him and getting closer.
#3 - The Bonnie Brooke Story
Season 8 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/21/1965
Don Brooke is desperate for money for his pregnant wife Bonnie, who's condition is too delicate for the long trip without more medical care so he seeks a bank loan. When he sees an opportunity at the bank, it leads to tragedy.
#4 - The Richard Bloodgood Story
Season 8 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/29/1964
A blind man called Sangre has joined the wagon train along with his guide. He is actually Coop's boyhood blood brother Richard Bloodgood, and he openly states his plan to kill Coop. Coop gets very hostile and refuses to discuss it whenever Charlie or Barnaby ask the reason Richard wants to kill him, but they know it has to do with the death of a beautiful woman long ago.
#5 - The Santiago Quesada Story
Season 7 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/30/1964
Kim Case is returning home during Indian wars after schooling in the east although her parents have died. She is anxious to return to the man she loves, Lance Starbuck, who is an Indian raised by an Army Major from a young age.
#6 - The John Gillman Story
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1964
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. Wowever, events cause a change.
#7 - The Steve Campden Story
Season 2 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/13/1959
Flint must find a way to get the wagon train around a snow covered pass. On a scouting trek, he meets a father and son who are willing to help him but they want to hike up the mountain. The adventure ahead has surprises for them all.
#8 - The Mavis Grant Story
Season 6 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1962
In the midst of a dry spell and desperately in need of water, the wagons stop at Mavis Grant's station, the only source of water for miles. But Miss Grant is a bitter and cold hearted woman who demands an outrageous price for the water.
#9 - Chuck Wooster, Wagonmaster
Season 2 - Episode 33 - Aired 5/20/1959
When a big snow halts the train, several of the men disappear mysteriously with no trace of them to be found. After Flint, Major Adams, and Hawks go missing, it's up to Chuck Wooster to lead the train to safety.
#10 - The Levy-McGowan Story
Season 6 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/14/1962
When the Levy family joins the wagon train, the tranquility becomes less so as the fathers compete in checkers, young sons fight, and son and daughter fall in love. Lastly, a settler who tries to shake down the train to cross his property.
#11 - The Ella Lindstrom Story
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/4/1959
Ella Lindstrom loses her husband on the wagon train ride west from Boston. With her seven children she decides to stay the course against the wishes of Major Adams. It gets more complicated when she thinks she is expecting number eight.
#12 - The Kitty Angel Story
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/7/1959
Kitty Angel finds herself not welcome on the wagon train due to her past. When Flint returns to the train toting a sick Indian baby, she has everyone's prejudices to deal with as well as this life threatening illness.
#13 - The Vincent Eaglewood Story
Season 2 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/15/1959
An educated man from the East tags alongside the wagon train. When he offers to teach school to pay his passage, all goes well until he is kicked off the train and the kids go looking for him - and they are near an Indian camp.
#14 - The Millie Davis Story
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/26/1958
Millie Davis reluctantly takes in an orphaned baby girl. Eight years later the girl's grandmother arrives to retrieve her. But Millie doesn't want to give up the child, so she claims that she and Flint are the parents.
#15 - The Swift Cloud Story
Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/8/1959
During an Indian attack on the wagon train, Major Adams spares the life of Swift Cloud, crippled son of the Indian Chief. Adams is shocked to learn that Swift Cloud's condition is the result of a vicious attack by a half-breed. The chief sends his son with the wagon train to go see a city doctor who might be able to cure him.
#16 - The Jed Whitmore Story
Season 7 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/13/1964
Jed Whitmore, one of three brothers that committed an infamous train robbery, is now town sheriff Frank Lewis but his brother released from prison comes to town with a fellow inmate and a reporter to get paid for the Jed Whitmore story.
#17 - The Miss Mary Lee McIntosh Story
Season 8 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/28/1965
Teacher Mary Lee McIntosh refuses to pay what she feels is an excessive fee to join the wagon train, so she decides instead to follow behind it in her wagon alone, and refuses help from Hale. But after her wagon overturns, things change.
#18 - The Chottsie Gubenheimer Story
Season 8 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/10/1965
Hale finds his old flame Chottsie Gubenheimer (played by John McIntire's real-life wife Jeanette Nolan) working in a gambling house and in an argument with the owner, so he asks her to come with him and join the wagon train. He comes to realize that he's getting more problems than he bargained for.
#19 - The Nancy Styles Story
Season 8 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/22/1964
Spoiled Nancy Styles, claiming to be the daughter of the owner of the company that owns the wagon train, is determined to get to Denver by forcing her way onto it and then Hale makes it clear he plans to bypass the city due to early snow.
#20 - Those Who Stay Behind
Season 8 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/8/1964
Hale is unable to take everybody on the next phase and has to turn down some of those applying. One is Ben Campbell, an ex-convict who is being hunted by his escaped former partner, who believes Ben turned him in to the law among others.
#21 - The Alice Whitetree Story
Season 8 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/1/1964
Coop falls for a young half-Indian woman wandering alone in the wilderness. He brings her to the wagon train, where Hale discovers she is a survivor of a tribe totally massacred ten years earlier. A sheriff says she has killed two people.
#22 - The Brian Conlin Story
Season 8 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/25/1964
Brian Conlin walks into Hale's camp, delirious and dehydrated. After he recovers, he leads Coop to his group of Irish immigrants, whose wagons have broken down, and Hale invites them to join the wagon train. However, having been repeatedly turned away from place after place, most members of Conlin's group are slow to trust anyone or accept help.
#23 - The Hollister John Garrison Story
Season 6 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/6/1963
Bitter alcoholic Stevenson Drake develops a dislike for the even tempered John Hollister, a fellow Southerner, when he learns he didn't fight for the Confederacy. He also is bothered by the friendliness between his wife and Hollister.
#24 - The Martin Gatsby Story
Season 6 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1962
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.
#25 - The Levi Hale Story
Season 5 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/18/1962
Chris Hale is traveling to the Wyoming prison to pick up his brother Levi---who's about to be released from prison. Chris assumed Levi was pardoned but he was paroled to Chris. He must keep Levi out of Wyoming or he will be hanged.