The director, Bud Boetticher, was a maverick in his own right. Best-known for the Randolph Scott films he directed, he was also a trained bull fighter.
Uses stock footage from the Warner Bros. movie, Silver River (1948). It even gives one of the characters here, played by Leo Gordon, the name of Mike McComb, the same name as the character played by Errol Flynn in the earlier movie.
Based on the 1935 book The War of the Copper Kings by C. B. Glassock, reprinted in 2002 by Riverbend Publishing.
In an interview producer/creator Roy Huggins claimed that Warner Brothers had deliberately broadcast this episode first because the story was owned by Warner Brothers (based on a prior movie they had made), and that would entitle them to claim ownership of the series. This meant that W.B. would receive the royalties for the show that should have gone to Huggins, a stunt he never forgave them for.