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,
The Bonanza Buckaroo The Bonanza Buckaroo The Bonanza Buckaroo is a 1926 American silent film comedy-western. Directed by Richard Thorpe, the film stars Jay Wilsey, Harry Todd, and Judith King. It was released on August 28, 1926. When Buffalo Bill Jr. rescues an older woman trapped in a runaway car, she invites him to dine with her and her wealthy husband. At dinner, Bill becomes entranced with the couples' daughter, Cleo. He quickly learns that Andrew Gordon's daughter will only marry someone with the means to support her in the style she is accustomed to. Bill is dismayed until he overhears a plot