After selling their house, the Higgins family is convinced by a crafty real estate agent to invest the proceeds in a hotel at Coyote Wells, Nevada, sight unseen. Upon arriving at their new establishment, the Higginses find that what has been described as a thriving western community is actually a ghost town, inhabited by a gang of mobsters fleeing from the law. Things look bleak until two film actors, dressed as prospectors, appear in town and the Higginses mistake them for real gold miners and spread word of a gold strike. This announcement results in a rush of miners which transforms Coyote Wells into a boom town and the Higgins' hotel into a profitable enterprise. Their prosperity is short lived however, when the miners fail to discover gold and decide to lynch the family. Grandpa saves their hides by salting the abandoned mine with gold dust, but as he leaves the mine, he accidentally sets off a stick of dynamite. Hurrying back to Apache Wells, Grandpa rounds up the prospectors and takes them back to the mine where, much to everyone's amazement, Grandpa discovers that the explosion has uncovered a rich vein of gold. As the miners prepare to rush to the land office to file their claims, Mugsy, the head of the gangsters, pulls a gun and announces that he is holding everyone hostage until his men can file a claim on the mine. All seems lost until Grandpa mounts an old nag and gallops into town, where he convinces the movie extras, costumed as Indians, to stage a raid on the gangsters and free the miners.