Barbara Stanwyck had become increasingly frustrated with the type of roles her studio, Warner Brothers, was providing for her and so had started freelancing. This was her first film for RKO.
The first Western for both director George Stevens and star Barbara Stanwyck. Stevens of course would go on to make one of the definitive films in the genre - Shane (1953).
A brief shot of Jim Thorpe, the great Native American Indian athlete, can be seen in one of the crowd scenes.