Winds of the Wasteland

In 1861, John Blair (John Wayne) and his partner, Larry Adams (Lane Chandler) are dismayed when the arrival of telegraph ends the Pony Express. Hoping to utilize their horse-riding skills, they decide to start a stage coach transportation business. They go to Buchanan City and ask local magnate Cal Drake (Douglas Cosgrove) if he is willing to sell them a stage coach. Instead, Drake offers them a franchise from his own stage coach line - a line out to bustling Crescent City.

Upon arriving at Crescent City, Blair and Adams quickly realize that they had been bamboozled into paying for the line as Crescent City is a ghost town. The only residents are the mayor, Rocky O'Brien (Lew Kelly), and Dr. William Forsythe (Sam Flint). The mayor is thrilled to get not only new residents to double the size of the town, but a stage coach line too. Blair disparages as there are no customers to transport and will have to lose his business so quickly. The mayor says there is a way for Blair to get all the money he owes and more. There will be a contest in the next few days where the fastest team in a race will win a $25,000 government contract to deliver mail to the area. With Blair's luck returning, he also meets a telegraph crew, who he saves from poisoning after drinking from a local water hole. In appreciation, the telegraph crew offers to run the line through Crescent City if Blair will give them laborers to build the telegraph line.

Blair is able to get laborers to build the telegraph line and the population of Crescent City begins to skyrocket. Drake, upset that Blair is actually a competing business out of his lie, then decides to hire Blair to drive a gold shipment to Sacramento only to ambush him. If Blair can get the gold to the destination, Drake will take $1,000 off of the original loan. Blair escapes the ambush and collects the money at gunpoint. Drake next hopes to stop Blair at the race. He gets his henchman to throw obstacles in Blair's way to defeat him by any means necessary. But despite all odds, Blair wins the race and the $25,000 reward.

• John Wayne as John Blair
• Phyllis Fraser as Barbara Forsythe
• Lew Kelly as Mayor Rocky O'Brien
• Douglas Cosgrove as Cal Drake (Buchanan Stage Line)
• Lane Chandler as Larry Adams (Blair's partner)
• Sam Flint as Dr. William "Doc" Forsythe
• Bob Kortman as Cherokee Joe (henchman)
• Ed Cassidy as Mr. Dodge (Pony Express manager)
• Jon Hall as Jim (Pony Express rider)
• Merrill McCormick as Henchman Pete
• Christian J. Frank as Telegraph crew chief
• Jack Rockwell as Buchanan City Marshal
• Arthur Millett as Postmaster In Buchanan City
• Tracy Layne as Reed

• John Wayne filmography

• Winds of the Wasteland at IMDb
• Winds of the Wasteland at AllMovie
• Winds of the Wasteland at the TCM Movie Database
• Winds of the Wasteland at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Winds of the Wasteland is available for free download at the Internet Archive