The legend of Cooper's Gold is a part of Texas folklore that tells of a buried treasure seized by Hayes Cooper of the Texas Rangers.
A prospector has spent 40 years searching for a legendary gold stash, and finally finds part of it. Walker tells Trivette that 140 years before Texas Ranger Hays Cooper had been tracking a gang that stole a gold shipment. He was killed a few days later and the gold was never found. Cooper's reputation was tarnished as the story spread that he had stolen and hidden the gold somewhere. We have scenes of a ghostly Hays Cooper on a ghostly white horse galloping across the plains multiple times in this two part episode.
Bragging about his find at a bank, the prospector gets kidnapped by a gang. Suspicious of unusual activity at the bank, Walker and Trivette approach and the gang starts shooting. As the rangers give chase, the prospector is tossed out of the moving truck, blocking Walker’s path and killing the prospector. The gang searches the prospector’s camp, and finds a rattle snake. The gang leader puts it in a bag to save for later. They find the part of the gold, but Walker arrives. The bag with the rattle snake gets put in Walker’s truck, and of course during the chase scene the snake escapes from the bag and bites Walker. Walker calls for help, then gets out of the truck, puts on a tourniquet, but passes out as a cougar approaches.
In flash backs we see a group of Buffalo soldiers escorting newly minted gold into a town to put on a train to New York, but the train was delayed. A gang with a machine gun hidden in a wagon kill all but the sergeant who looks like Trivette (name Benjamin Lockett?), and they steal the gold. Hays Cooper (Walker) comes into town planning to track the gang and the sergeant asks to come along. While entering a saloon Cooper stops a man from abusing and using a whip on his own son. Hays spots a saloon girl that looks like Alex. He seeks information from the man she was with, but ends up shooting him in self-defense. He has to insist the racist bar tender also serve the whiskey to the black soldier, then has to fight off the vengeful father of the boy, promising ot do worse if he learns the father has abused the child again. He makes love with the Alex look alike, then in the morning sets off with the sergeant on the trail of the gang. While camping that night, the men trade stories. Most of the killed soldiers had been free men that signed up for the army. However, the black sergeant had been a slave that escaped, but was enslaved again by Native Americans. Rescued by the army he joined up to fight the Comanches. Cooper had been a farm boy, but his parents were murdered by a gang. After he buried the parents he set out in search of the gang and killed the three men. A Texas Ranger trying to arrest him for murder offered Cooper the choice to become a criminal or a ranger. The soldier talks about Cooper's amazing reputation.
In the present day a windstorm thwarts Alex and Trivette’s search for Walker in a helicopter, so they head out by truck. As a cougar approaches the delirious Walker, a ghostly Hays Cooper on a ghost white horse arrives in flashing light and frightens off the cougar. The light also attracts Alex and Trivette so they find Walker and get him to the hospital in time to save his life. However, upon hearing Trivette has gone after the gang on his own, Walker leaves the hospital and sets out after him. The gang had returned to the camp and dug up the rest of the gold and loads it in a truck. Walker joins up with Trivette and they somehow get a helicopter to chase the gang down.
In the past, a wind storm makes the robbers think they will not be able to cross the river with the horses and the gold, so they decide to bury to gold by the river planning to come back for it later. Comanche braves arrive and kill most of the gang. In parallel scenes we see Cooper arrive and have a gun battle with the two remaining gang members. All get shot but the black soldier survives. In the present Trivette is shot as they battle with the gold thieves. A ghostly Cooper on his horse arrives and distracts the gang leader so Walker can shoot him. Mysteriously the gold has vanished from the back of the thieves’ truck. Walker says Cooper was here and the gold is back where it belongs. (Where?)
In the past, the black sergeant confronts the newspaper office about printing the false story that Cooper stole the gold. The newspapermen are more interested in a sensational story than the truth, call him “boy”, and he has to fight his way out of the office. In the present, Walker visits Hays Cooper's grave, then visits the great grandson of the black soldier. He receives his ancestor's diary entry about the gold that allows Walker to clear Cooper’s name.