At the end of the Civil War, Sam White returns home to his ranch in the Texas ranch -The Panhandle - to find it in the hands of a gang of outlaws. The gang is led by Sam's foreman, Jim Tulane, who because of unsettled conditions throughout the state, has been able to use the ranch as a base for his outlaw empire. The ranch comprises an entire county and Sam had given Tuland power-of-attorney to divide it up among the people who had come to settle there. Since the efforts of Sam's father, Sheriff Tom White, to maintain law-and-order have been unsuccessful, Sam orders a wagon-trail load of guns and ammunition to be delivered to the ranch with the intentions of arming the settlers and defeating Tuland. Before the war, Sam had also discovered on the ranch rich deposits of valuable bauxite.Tulanes knows nothing of the existence of the ore but he becomes suspicious and takes Sam prisoner in an attempt to make him talk.