Ponderosa Ranch - TV Origins of The Fictional Ponderosa Ranch

TV Origins of The Fictional Ponderosa Ranch

The Ponderosa was the fictional setting for Bonanza. According to the premiere episode's storyline, it was a 600,000 acre (2,400 km²) ranch on the shores of Lake Tahoe, nestled high in the Sierra Nevada, with a large ranch house in the center of it. Ben Cartwright was said to have built the original, smaller homestead after moving from New Orleans with his pregnant third wife Marie and his two sons, Adam and Hoss. The grown Adam, an architect/engineer, designed the later sprawling ranch house as depicted on TV ("Bonanza, The Philip Diedesheimer Story", Oct. 31, 1959, NBC-TV; "Bonanza: The Return", April 1993, NBC-TV). The fictional ranch was roughly a two-hour horse ride from Virginia City, Nevada. (Note: There are slight variations as to the origin of the Ponderosa Ranch, from the original "Bonanza" series, Lorne Greene's 1964 song "Saga of the Ponderosa", the 1988-95 TV movies, and the 2001 PAX prequel series "Ponderosa"). The ranch house was a single level structure that had a facade second story. Inside a staircase seemingly led to the second-floor corridor, but it was a dead end. The bedroom scenes were filmed at Burbank Studios. The inspiration for the name may have been the large number of Ponderosa pines in the area or the original Latin meaning of large (root of the English word ponderous). The exteriors for the television show were occasionally shot in Nevada, usually out of sequence. Crews were sometimes able to complete an entire season's work in just a few days.

The first Virginia City set used on the show from 1959–1970 was located on a back lot at Paramount. It was also used in episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel, Mannix and The Brady Bunch. In the 1970 "Bonanza" episode "The Night Virginia City Died", Deputy Clem Foster's pyromaniac fiancee leveled the town in a series of fires. This allowed for a switch to the less-expensive Warner Studios from September 1970 through January 1973. Very few of the original Bonanza episodes were shot at the theme park's Virginia City site, although the town was prominently featured in three Bonanza television movies. Because the movies showcased the next generation of Cartwrights, they began circa 1905. The Ponderosa park expanded beyond the buggy era to include an exhibit featuring antique cars. It was a fledgling endeavor as tourists wanted to see horses flanked by Cartwright saddles.