Greetings family, friends and theme park buddies! You may recognize this old souvenir tin cup from Lake Tahoe's Ponderosa Ranch, a summer destination of ours for many years, and I hope that you enjoy this little back story about the parks humble beginnings......Bill

BONANZA

Displaced by the Great Depression and spending seven years crisscrossing the country, taking on odd jobs, scavenging for castoff food, living out of their car and doing whatever they could to survive, the Anderson family made their way to Northern California. In 1939 William and Alberta and their 3 children settled on a patch of barren land and built a tiny house on Hesperian Blvd. in San Lorenzo. Bill and Chris, the Anderson’s two enterprising teenage sons, began selling abandoned junk in order to make a few bucks when they came across a fellow eager to sell an old wrecked Studebaker for $10. After cannibalizing useful parts and turning a small profit the boys realized that they were on to something and began salvaging abandoned old cars. Within a few years their backyard junkyard grew into “Anderson Bros, Auto Wrecking”. Heavy equipment was always of interest to Bill and he jumped at the opportunity to expand their post war business by purchasing an adjacent piece of property on Hesperian and reselling government war surplus heavy duty machinery and vehicles. The lucrative growing business allowed Bill to get married and travel internationally to seek additional investment opportunities. His attention turned to Lake Tahoe where Anderson Bros.was leasing the heavy duty equipment to the Crystal Bay Development Co. for the construction of the upscale community of Incline Village. Chris remained in the Bay Area to operate the San Lorenzo business while Bill and his wife Joyce moved to Tahoe to oversee the companies Incline Village operations. Always seeking opportunities, Bill began buying up land parcels in North Lake Tahoe, ultimately parlaying the $10 investment for the old junk Studebaker into a multimillion dollar business and becoming one of the largest land holders at North Lake Tahoe.

The Anderson’s didn’t watch allot of TV and were not familiar with “Bonanza” the successful show about a fictional family that operated a huge ranch in North Lake Tahoe in the early 1900’s. Bill sensed another opportunity when people began showing up at their gate requesting a tour of the ranch and asking to meet Ben, Little Joe, Hoss, and Adam. He began by expanding Joyce’s Incline Village Horse Riding Stables to include a reproduction of the Cartwright Ranch House, fiberglass reproductions of the families horses and a display of his eclectic collection of old cars, wagons and western collectibles. However naming the increasingly popular tourist destination “Ponderosa Ranch” and the unauthorized use of Cartwright family images on promotional material and merchandise didn’t go over well with NBC. But when 150,000 people visited the ranch during the 1967 season the NBC lawyers were inclined to seek compromise and Bill was given OK to proceed with his western themed family amusement park. Attractions’s included a ranch house tour, western town based on nearby Virginia City, wild west shows, western museum and food concessions including a popular breakfast trail ride, and “Hoss Burgers”. Bill’s agreement with NBC encouraged filming at the ranch, however the cost and logistics of bringing the cast and crew from Hollywood resulted in only a few episodes being shot at the lake. Closing in 2004 and outlasting the TV show Bonanza by several decades, for awhile Bill and Joyce Anderson’s “Ponderosa”, with roots in a San Lorenzo junk yard, was the most famous ranch in the world.   

https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1297873