Episode list

When a gold rush strikes the town of Jackson, greed in the form of town bully Paul Garrett causes the death of a number of gold panners, and schoolmarm Mae, freighter Murphy, panner Moses, and 11-year-old street kid Will team up to take care of the orphaned children. At first, Murphy gets cold feet and runs off Will when he is afraid of getting too close, but Mae's quick wit brings Will and Murphy together. When Mr. Rodman threatens to take the orphans to the workhouse and it looks as though the Church won't provide support in time, a surprise priest shows up to assist.

Just when they're settled in at Gold Hill and feeling safe, a visiting priest sent by the Bishop throws a wrench into the gears. Father Parker's inexperience and one boy's bedwetting cause Murphy, Mae, and Moses problems.

Moses decides to take on a hate-filled youth, Lijah, who starts to change for the better--until a dreadful accident on a freight run.

While in town to sell two cows for much-needed money, Father Parker receives a sign to purchase a horse, Thunder, to enter into the town's $1000-jackpot horse race. With Mr. Rodman breathing down Gold Hill's neck about empty food shelves and Thunder refusing to be ridden, Gold Hill could be in trouble.

Mountain man Eli comes down from the mountains with his adopted daughter Dru and brings her to Gold Hill for some education. Later, some of the kids get themselves put into the Claymore work camp so they can save Ephram, who was sent there.

After Ephram is jailed and sent to Claymore workhouse and Will and Drew get themselves sent there so they can rescue Ephram, they discover that it isn't as easy to get out as they thought. It looks hopeless until Murphy hatches a plan to get them out.

When Gold Hill runs short of money, they accept an offer of a school administrator, along with state funds. This results in unforeseen circumstances, including Murphy and Moses being kicked out and Gold Hill becoming a work camp.

Gold Hill's owner shows up talking constantly to his invisible mother, bringing more than a few laughs--but also worry from the Gold Hill folks that he might actually find gold and they will need to leave.

An old man who wants to woo an old educated woman decides to go back to school at Gold Hill, but ends up also teaching.

Will finds a gold nugget, and when his father Ned sees him cash it in, he kidnaps him to get the money. Ned locks Will in a shed to try to make him tell where the rest of the gold nuggets are. Ned is involved in an accident that leaves him speechless and near death. Time is running out, as Will has no water, and only rotten potatoes to eat. Finally Murphy puts the pieces together and finds Will. When Will awakens, angry that his father left him for dead, he's presented with the news of his father's death. Will is angry and glad that his father is dead. Murphy does an unselfish act so that Will will not grow up hating: he tells Will that his father said he was sorry and that he loved him.

While Murphy and Mae are gone, the kids talk Moses into letting a gambler temporarily use the school as a gambling house, in exchange for a percentage of the profits and a piano. When Mr. Rodman finds out, he becomes enamored with gambling. When he loses his mother's savings, he reports the gambling hall to the gambler's mother, who heads a group that wants to remove gambling houses. As this group heads to Gold Hill along with a returning Murphy and Mae, a split decision will lead to either Moses getting caught or him hiding what has transpired.

A young ex-Confederate army bugler comes to the school looking for a meal. After he begins attending the school, he exposes his Southern attributes by rebuking Moses for "acting like an equal"; his beliefs eventually lead him to join a group of white-sheet-wearing racists in their nighttime excursions to rid the town of Blacks.

Amanda, a woman involved with bank extortion, ins in a stagecoach accident with several others, including a nun who was on her way to Gold Hill. All of the people on the stage perish but Amanda, and she decides to switch clothes with the nun and continue on to Gold Hill. Nervous at first, she is moved by the kids' love and changes her ways. But trouble brews when her accomplice recognizes her in town, and then the sheriff recognizes her picture. She starts to run away, but finds Murphy at the bottom of the well, asphyxiated from deadly gas. She has a choice: run and get away, or help Murphy out of the well and get caught.

After Mr. Rodman's son Archibald is expelled from another school, the Rodmans attempt to plant him at Gold Hill as an orphan and a spy. When Murphy returns from a trip, Archibald finds out about Murphy posing as a priest when Mr. Rodman comes by. When Archibald's true identity is revealed, they take him camping to delay until Father Parker can return. With some fatherly loving, Archibald starts to change for the better. Meanwhile, Mr. Rodman threatens to get the Sheriff when he discovers that Archibald is off with Murphy. Murphy and the kids return to confront Mr. Rodman, knowing that Archibald can reveal the truth about Murphy.

Ms. Hansen, a rich widow, comes to Gold Hill to adopt an older boy to take over her husband's empire, but there's a crisis when she decides to adopt one of the boys who is not up for adoption.

Father Parker discovers a sick boy on the trail, and sees this as a sign that he was to help him, but the boy dies before Fr. Parker can get him to a doctor. This, along with the feeling that he is making no difference in the world, causes a crisis in faith. He decides to stop practicing his faith and to stop being a priest. He takes a job in Jackson to earn enough money to return to Pennsylvania. While working in the saloon, he starts to touch the lives of people, especially a barmaid and a drunk, and starts to realize that he does matter, that he does make a difference.

As potential adoptive parents visit, the orphans must deal with such emotions as angst, disappointment, and joy.

Fr. Parker sells the kids' favorite old horse, Laddie, not knowing their attachment to the animal; some of the kids take off after the rustles to save Laddie.

Richard Garrett, the equally evil brother of deceased Paul Garrett, arrives in town to pick up where Paul left off. Problems erupt when Matt gets a crush on Richard's daughter Elizabeth.

Murphy's friend, a local man, has a daughter he cannot control. At his wits' end, he brings his daughter Emma to Gold Hill. She proves to be a bad influence on the Gold Hill kids, but the real trouble starts when she falls in love with Murphy. She figures that if she gets Gold Hill closed down, Murphy will have to go off with her, so she tells Rodman of Murphy's secret. This creates a crisis and it looks like Rodman will finally get his way and have the kids transferred to the Claymore work camp. Meanwhile Fr. Parker continues to be blocked by Garrett in purchasing a building for a church.

Murphy finds and buys property under the guise of opening an honest gambling establishment; it will actually be the church for Fr. Parker. This is where he and Mae get married, which makes them eligible to adopt the orphans.