Ponderosa Ranch 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,
Bonanza, Colorado Bonanza, Colorado The Town of Bonanza is a Statutory Town located in Saguache County, Colorado, United States. Formerly known as Bonanza City, Bonanza is a largely abandoned former silver mining town. "Bonanza" is a Spanish language word meaning prosperity. The town population was 16 at the 2010 United States Census, ranking Bonanza as the second least populous municipality in the State of Colorado. The Villa Grove Post Office (ZIP Code 81155) now serves Bonanza. In 1880, Tom Cooke of Salida, Colorado stumbled upon ore deposits while searching for horses. Prospectors flocked to this location and the town of Bonanza was