The only film that Tim Holt co-starred with his famous father Jack Holt - one of the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - although Jack did have an bit part in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
The film takes place shortly after September 15, 1898 - the date Teddy Roosevelt's Rough Riders were officially disbanded - as depicted by the newspaper headline Rawhide receives in the mail.
At the time this film was set, the Arizona Territory was still the wild, wild West. Statehood would come in early 1912, just a month after its neighbor, New Mexico, was admitted. The next two new states would be Alaska and Hawaii, almost a half century later.