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,
Spahn Ranch notorious for having been the primary residence of Charles Manson and his followers, the "Manson Family", for much of 1968 and 1969. The ranch took its name from dairy farmer George Spahn, who purchased the property in 1948. Silent film actor William S. Hart owned the ranch prior to Spahn. Many western-themed movies and television shows were filmed on the ranch, including "Duel in the Sun" (1946) and television episodes of "Bonanza", "The Lone Ranger", and "Zorro". It was also the filming location for the B-movie "The Creeping Terror". Spahn was 80 years old, going blind and living at his