This film was shooting on location in Newhall, CA, and word was received on October 24, 1939, that author Zane Grey had died earlier that day. Shooting stopped at 3:00 pm in his honor.
This is one of 20 Zane Grey stories, filmed by Paramount in the 1930s, which it sold to Favorite Films for re-release, circa 1950-52. The failure of Paramount, the original copyright holder, to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
The 20 Zane Grey stories sold by Paramount to Favorite Films for theatrical re-release, and then to Unity Television Corp. for television broadcast, are as follows: The Light of Western Stars (1930) (aka "Winning the West"), Fighting Caravans (1931) (aka "Blazing Arrows"), Heritage of the Desert (1932) (aka "When the West Was Young"), The Mysterious Rider (1933) (aka "The Fighting Phantom"), The Thundering Herd (1933) (aka "Buffalo Stampede"), Man of the Forest (1933) (aka "Challenge of the Frontier"), To the Last Man (1933) (aka "Law of Vengeance"), Wagon Wheels (1934) (aka "Caravans West"), Rocky Mountain Mystery (1935) (aka "The Fighting Westerner"), Drift Fence (1936) (aka "Texas Desperadoes"), Desert Gold (1936) (aka "Desert Storm"), The Arizona Raiders (1936) (aka "Bad Men of Arizona"), Arizona Mahoney (1936) (aka "Arizona Thunderbolt"), Forlorn River (1937) (aka "River of Destiny"), Thunder Trail (1937) (aka "Thunder Pass"), Born to the West (1937) (aka "Hell Town"), The Mysterious Rider (1938) (aka "Mark of the Avenger"), Heritage of the Desert (1939) (aka "Heritage of the Plains"), Knights of the Range (1940) (aka "Bad Men of Nevada"), The Light of Western Stars (1940) (aka "Border Renegade").
Although this film retained its original title when it was re-released theatrically by Favorite Films in 1950, when it was sold to television, its title was changed to "Border Renegade", most likely to protect theatrical re-release showings which were still in progress in some territories. In Louisville it was first telecast Saturday 8 August 1953 on WHAS (Channel 11), in Detroit Friday 13 November 1953 on WXYZ (Channel 7), in New York City Sunday 9 May 1954 on WCBS (Channel 2), and in Los Angeles Sunday 21 November 1954 on KRCA (Channel 4). In San Francisco, it first hit the airwaves Monday 26 September 1955 on KPIX (Channel 5).
Debut of actresses Georgia Ellis and Esther Estrella.