Bonanza City, New Mexico Explained

It featured a more relaxed long shot of the cast on horseback before the Sierra Nevada. This ranch was also sold in 2020, making for headlines and memories of Bonanza’s heyday. These include Silverado and A Million Ways to Die in the West.

What is the single most intriguing fact about Bonanza City, New Mexico?

The script was initially written for the departing David Canary’s Candy, but was rewritten for actors Ray Teal (Sheriff Roy Coffee) and Bing Russell (Deputy Clem Foster), who rarely appeared together on the show. Bonanza has had a highly profitable merchandising history. Currently, Bonanza Ventures, Inc. grants merchandising and licensing rights worldwide. Later that year, two miners found gold and silver there. By the end of 1880, over 500 mining shafts were open in the area. Bonanza City is a ghost town in New Mexico, 13 miles (21 km) southwest of Santa Fe.
Episodes of the series have also been officially released as part-works on DVD in France and the United Kingdom. Bonanza is uniquely known for having addressed racism, not typically covered on American television during the time period, from a compassionate, humanitarian point-of-view. It was not unusual for Little Joe Cartwright and Candy Canaday to appear shirtless in various scenes involving manual labor. Bonanza was considered an atypical Western for its time, as the core of the storylines dealt less about the range but more with Ben and his three dissimilar sons, how they cared for one another, their neighbors and just causes.

• This section includes characters who will appear or have appeared in at least one season of the series.
• These episodes are from the tenth season through the end of the series (1968–73).
• For 14 years, Bonanza was the premier Western on American television.
• Bonanza City is a ghost town, located 13 miles southwest of Santa Fe in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States.
• A majority of ranch-specific scenes were shot on a sound stage at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.
• The amusement park operated in Incline Village, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, from 1968 until 2004.

Ready to Scout Bonanza Creek Ranch?

The ranch house was a single-story structure, although from the outside it appeared to have a second story. Little Joe’s green corduroy jacket and Hoss’s brown suede vest were displayed hanging on a rack. A handful of early episodes have fallen into the public domain. The ranch name refers to the Pinus ponderosa (ponderosa pine), common in the West.

Television movies

The Ponderosa Ranch was a theme park based on the television western Bonanza, which housed the land, timber and livestock-rich Cartwright family. The amusement park operated in Incline Village, Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, from 1968 until 2004. Portions of the last five seasons of the Bonanza City TV series and three television films were also filmed at that location. Across the NBC Western’s 14 seasons, the “Cartwrights” lived on the ranch, located on the outskirts of Virginia City and near Lake Tahoe, Nevada. But while scenes and episodes were sometimes shot outdoors and on location, the majority of Bonanza was filmed on California studio sets and soundstages. For over 70 years, Bonanza Creek Ranch has served as a premier movie ranch and film location in New Mexico, featured in more than 150 films, television shows, and commercials.

• At its busiest, Bonanza City may have had up to 2,000 people.
• VE AG released the first seven seasons on DVD in Germany between 2008 and 2010.
• It was a fledgling endeavor as tourists wanted to see horses flanked by Cartwright saddles.
• Bonanza City Casino, launched in 2025 by Hollycorn N.V., delivers a thrilling and secure gaming experience for online players.
• There were activities such as a haunted house, panning for gold, amusements based on old-time Wild West shows, as well as concessions and souvenirs.
• Covering the time when the Cartwrights first arrived at the Ponderosa, when Adam and Hoss were teenagers and Joe a little boy, the series lasted 20 episodes and featured less gunfire and brawling than the original.

Bonanza filming locations

However, Michael Landon, Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, and David Canary often made appearances at the ranch in costume to mingle with fans and sign autographs. Blocker died in 1972, and NBC canceled the series the following year. Canary, dressed in character as Candy, made his last visit there in 2002 for a PAX-TV special. Mitch Vogel (Jamie Cartwright) appeared at the ranch for the Travel Channel’s “TV Road Trip” in 2002, in which he pitched a behind-the-scenes look at the Ponderosa Ranch and Incline Village. Copies of the “Ponderosa Map”, autographed by three of the Cartwrights, became souvenirs at the ranch for decades afterward, along with tin cups bearing their likenesses. Episodes that were filmed entirely or in part at the ranch bear a title plate at the end of the credits.

Where Was ‘Bonanza’ Actually Filmed?

During the first season extra horses were rented from the Idyllwild Stables in Idyllwild, also in the San Jacinto Mountains. The first Virginia City set was used on the show until 1970 and was located on a backlot at Paramount and featured in episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, Mannix and The Brady Bunch. In the 1970 premiere episode of the 12th season titled “The Night Virginia City Died”, Deputy Clem Foster’s pyromaniac fiancée levels the town in a series of fires (reflecting a real 1875 fire that destroyed three-quarters of Virginia City). This allowed for a switch to the less expensive Warner studios from September 1970 through January 1973.

Bonanza City, New Mexico

Action-shot pictorials of the cast replaced the galloping trio with the order of the actors rotating from episode to episode, resulting in Blocker or Landon often getting top billing over Greene. Finally, a faster rendition of the original music returned for the 14th and final season, along with action shots of the cast (sans Dan Blocker, who had died by this point). Only the front of the ranch house was ever shown on television because a highway ran directly to the right of the house. In episodes shot in-studio, the home exterior has a backdrop of sky and trees.