<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article does not cite any sources . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article does not cite any sources . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (October 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> The Ponderosa Ranch was a theme park based on the popular 1960s television western Bonanza, which housed the affluent land, timber and livestock - rich Cartwright family . The amusement park operated in Incline Village, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, from 1967 until 2004 . Portions of the last five seasons of the TV series and three TV movies were also filmed at that location . </P> <P> The Ponderosa was the fictional setting for Bonanza . According to the 9th episode ("Mr. Henry Comstock") in the first season, it was a thousand - square mile (640,000 acre or 2,600 km) ranch on the shores of Lake Tahoe, nestled 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, from the original Bonanza series, Lorne Greene's 1964 song "Saga of the Ponderosa", the 1988 - 95 TV movies, and the 2001 PAX prequel series Ponderosa). The ranch house was a single level structure that had a facade second storey . Inside a staircase seemingly led to the first - floor corridor, but it was a dead end . The bedroom scenes were filmed at Burbank Studios . The inspiration for the name may have been the large number of Ponderosa pines in the area or the original Latin meaning of large (root of the English word ponderous). The exteriors for the television show were occasionally shot in Nevada, usually out of sequence . Crews were sometimes able to complete an entire season's work in just a few days . </P>

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