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,
Dave Cartwright Ward, entitled "Bittersweet". In the year of publication, the book was voted third best biography in "Record Collector" 's review poll. Dave died suddenly and unexpectedly, at his home in Worcestershire on 8 August, 2015. "Dave Cartwright - - - - Number 1" (Highway Records HWY 6001, 1965) EP Dave Cartwright Dave Cartwright (April 1943-8 August 2015) was a British singer, songwriter, guitarist and author. Born in Haslemere, Surrey, he grew up in Amblecote, West Midlands where, on lead guitar and vocal, he formed his first rock and roll group, The Crossfires, in 1959. He then joined the Kidderminster outfit