Heart of the Rockies (1951)

Stars: Roy Rogers, Trigger, Penny Edwards
Director: William Witney

Roy Rogers, a highway engineer, strongly favors a youth-rehabilitation camp sponsored by retired State Prison Warden Parker where young first-offenders can be reformed without being exposed to penitentiary life. Andrew Willard, through whose range a new highway is being built, is being secretly robbed of his pure-bred cattle by his crooked foreman Devery who has marketed the cattle and replaced them with scrub stock.He then has the herd stampeded into a landslide set off by dynamite by Roy's young crew to make them appear responsible for the loss of the "valuable" cattle. Roy takes the blame and is ordered off of the property by Willard, over the protests of his niece June. Then Devery has two of his men, whom he has planted on the guest ranch ran by Splinters McGonigle, steal a diamond brooch belonging to Mrs. Edsel and the blame is placed on one of the work camp boys, Jim Corley. Roy has his work cut out for him to clear the boys of the pending charges, especially after Devery has Warden Parker killed and Roy's crew is also blamed for that.