"There's gold in them there hills."

An adage from the old west. And indeed there was gold in Alder Gulch...lots of gold with lots of miners looking to strike it rich. And lots of bandits just waiting for the right moment to strike and get rich in their own way.

Sent by President Abraham Lincoln to assure that the newly discovered riches didn't help the Confederate cause, Wilhelm Clark, part-time judge and full-time lawyer recruits several men of good—more or less—character to aid in maintaining peace and protecting the miners from the marauders that would turn Alder Gulch into an outlaw hell-hole where no honest man—or woman—would be safe. As luck would have it, the outlaws chose to build their headquarters on land held sacred by the Crow Native-American tribe, which was a major lapse in judgment.