Steve Harmon arrives in Border Plain to survey the land, known as the Spur, which is to soon be opened to homesteaders. The area is a natural haven for a desperado gang led by Claw Hawkins, already under suspicion of murdering a Pony Express rider. Hawkins' gang wrecks the newspaper office of Jake Parker, but Hawkins loses a marked $100 bill he had stolen from the Express rider. Jake finds it and sends for Steve and Sheriff Tim Collins. Knowing that Hawkins still poses a danger to Jake, Steve switches to the Durango Kid and kidnaps him, hiding him in the carpentry shop ran by his pal Smiley. There, Jake runs off handbills and notices that the Spur is opened for settlement and land will be acquired through a first-one-there landrush. The Hawkins gang, secretly led by rancher Caleb Garvey, tries to circumvent the landrush by taking a short cut and starting a prairie fire in the path of the landrushers. Steve aids the prospective land owners by having them dig fire ditches and then, as the Durango Kid, swooping down on the gang members who are setting up property claims in the Spur.