On July 23, 1992 we headed out early, from our cabin at Meeks Bay, for a day at the Ponderosa Ranch. As fans of the the long-running Bonanza TV program (from 1959 to 1973) we were excited to visit.
We were there for the haywagon ride and the all-you-can eat pancake breakfast (and all the photo ops a place like this affords).Early meant chilly but it was oh so fun to have to cuddle.The Ponderosa Ranch began with Bill Anderson, who in the late 1950s, envisioned the possibilities of his own ranch and bought 570 acres on the east side of Lake Tahoe. The property Bill bought wasn’t as big as the TV ranch, but it was good sized and in a prime area. The Andersons built a home there and ran a small horse operation. It was a paradise.In 1961, Bonanza creator David Dortort saw the land and thought it offered some perfect scenery shots for the series, which was mostly filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. He was thrilled to discover Bill could also provide horses. Bill’s son, Royce, remembers a childhood peopled by actors Michael Landon (Little Joe), Dan Blocker (Hoss) and Lorne Greene (Ben). He even played with their kids, at times.Over the years, viewers of the series began showing up, wanting to see the Ponderosa that came into their living rooms each week. The real ranch wasn’t quite the same, of course, but it seemed to satisfy.The fan interest gave Bill an idea. If people wanted to see Bonanza’s ranch, why not give it to them? He could build a replica of the Cartwright homestead and barn, and a version of the Virginia City set. The show’s producers loved Bill’s idea. They even provided the cast to appear in ads for the ranch. In 1967, thousands of people flocked to the place.This theme ranch became the Anderson family business. Everybody worked at the park, even Royce, who took charge of the horses at the tender age of 10, in 1971. They made big money—even after the TV show went off the air in 1973. Overall, an estimated eight million people came to the Ponderosa over a 37-year span.The family sold the ranch in 2004, but not because folks had lost interest in it; about 250,000 people came to the Ponderosa between April and September that last year. “It was time to move on,” Royce says, so the Andersons sold the ranch to a software billionaire who closed it “indefinitely.”We made many memories there, over the years. Our friends, Steve and Laura, were married in this chapel over 30 years ago.Will there ever be another Ponderosa Ranch? I read last November some encouraging news. At a Nevada Commission on Tourism meeting, the Ponderosa was given new life as commissioners unanimously approved a VIP grant request to relocate the ranch that was home to the fictional Cartwright family.Commissioner Herb Santos said that he’s always lamented the closure of the park that shut down well after the heyday of Bonanza (but was still wildly popular). The grant will create The Ponderosa Ranch Exhibit near Elko. The Ponderosa, and the movie sets associated with the show, are being moved to Lamoille (366 miles from South Lake Tahoe...I'm thinking ROAD TRIP). The goal of the project is to create a cultural educational attraction that interprets Nevada’s rich movie and television heritage. Yahoo!When we moved to Tahoe, our older son got all excited and wanted to visit the Ranch again. It was with sadness that I had to tell him it was no longer there. I'm excited to see whatever the Nevada Commission on Tourism comes up with to share this bit of childhood memory with future generations. Do you have your own Ponderosa Ranch recollections?
“The best fruit is not what falls, but what you have to reach for.”
- Hoss Cartwright
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1 comments:
I remember going there in my late teens. My girlfriend's sister stood at a doorknob crying - just overwhelmed that Little Joe had stood there and touched that knob. funny what we remember about experiences, hehee
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