Ponderosa Ranch - The richest, largest spread this side of the Rockies on the western adventure BONANZA/NBC/1959-73. The Ponderosa was the family home of the Cartwright family headed by patriarch Ben Cartwright, (Lorne Greene) and his grown half-sons, Adam (Pernell Roberts), Joseph "Little Joe" (Michael Landon) and Eric "Hoss" (Dan Blocker). According to the map seen at the beginning of each episode, this 1000 square mile timberland ranch was located in the Comstock Lode country between Virginia City and Carson City on the north and the shores of Lake Tahoe on the south. The ranch's cattle brand was a stick figure of a Ponderosa pine tree. Ranch hands earned $30 a month which included a bunk house bed and all the grub they could eat. The Ponderosa was also featured in the NBC TV-Movie remakes Bonanza: The Return (1993); and Bonanza: Under Attack (1995) and the short-lived prequel series PONDEROSA/PAX/2001-2002.

TRIVIA NOTE: Sadly, in 2004, Nevada's Incline Village, a 570-acre Western theme park based on the Ponderosa Ranch closed its doors after its owners sold the property in July to Incline Village resident and developer David Duffield for an undisclosed price. The highly successful Incline Village was created in 1967 by Bill Anderson, an equipment contractor and his wife, Joyce. Their re-creation of the Ponderosa was built at the exact location of the spot on the burning map seen at the beginning of each episode of BONANZA (whose producer's filmed for six-seasons at this site). When it was open, visitors to Incline Village, Nevada near Reno discovered a replica of the Cartwright house and ranch as well as a petting zoo, a church, a gallows, a Hossburger stand, a memorial make-believe cemetery with headstones of Ben, Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright, and miles and miles of open air country used for shooting location scenery for this now classic western series. Annually, more than 300,000 people visited the Ponderosa. It was located on the north shore of Lake Tahoe in the Crystal Bay area, off Nevada 28 at 100 Ponderosa Road.

Background scenes from episode No. 49 "Ghost Town, U.S.A." on the sitcom THE BRADY BUNCH/ABC/1969-74 (part of the "Grand Canyon Trilogy") were actually filmed on the old BONANZA Ponderosa set. When Michael Landon was honored on DEAN MARTIN'S CELEBRITY ROAST in the 1970s, Lorne Greene said that on Michael's first day on the set of BONANZA, he looked at the Ponderosa and said, "One day all this will be mine." Then, quipped Greene, "he loosened the brakes on my car."