Ponderosa Steakhouse and Bonanza Steakhouse under the Metromedia Restaurant Group. The names of the restaurants were derived from the classic TV series "Bonanza", which was set at a place called Ponderosa Ranch. In 1963, Dan Blocker, who played Eric "Hoss" Cartwright on "Bonanza", started the Bonanza Steakhouse chain. The first Bonanza opened in Westport, Connecticut. Sam Wyly and his brother Charles Wyly bought the small Bonanza restaurant chain three years later. The company grew to approximately 600 restaurants by 1989, when the Wylys sold it to Metromedia. In 1965, Dan Lasater, Norm Wiese and Charles Kleptz founded Ponderosa in Kokomo, Indiana, moving the headquarters to
Flying S Ranch Airport of Route 93 but labeled merely as “FS-2”. It is not known what military use (if any) the Caliente Flight Strip ever had. Sold by the WAA as a private airport after the war, the airfield was sold in July 1967 to its present owners. Flying S Ranch Airport Flying S Ranch Airport is a private airport located approximately northeast of Caliente, California. During World War II it was a United States Army Airfield, known as Caliente Flight Strip. It was one of the many Flight Strips which were built by the USAAF during the war for the emergency use