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
1947 Oregon Beechcraft Bonanza crash 1947 Oregon Beechcraft Bonanza crash On October 28, 1947, Oregon Governor Earl Snell, second in line of succession Oregon State Senate President Marshall Cornett, and Oregon Secretary of State Robert S. Farrell, Jr. were killed in a crash of a Beechcraft Bonanza in stormy weather southwest of Dog Lake in rural Lake County, Oregon. The trio died along with the aircraft's pilot, who was taking them to an isolated area to hunt Canada geese. The tragedy propelled Oregon Speaker of the House John Hubert Hall to the Governorship of Oregon. On October 28, 1947, a privately owned Beechcraft Bonanza airplane