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‘Bonanza’: The Lake Tahoe Ranch Where the Show Filmed Sold for Insane Amount

The Cartwright family in the massively popular television Western Bonanza was wealthy for their time, but even they wouldn’t be able to believe what the Ponderosa Ranch sold for recently.

The 24-acre property located on Lake Tahoe’s Zephyr Cove sold for an astounding $38 million last year. That’s a record for the Lake Tahoe waterfront, Business Insider said.

The Ponderosa Ranch is one of the most iconic locations in television history. And any fan of the show knew where it was thanks to the burning map that opened the theme song. But a lot has changed on for the property since the time the Hoss and Little Joe rode and ranched that land.

The home built on the 24-acre property is a sprawling estate. It sits at 17,700-square-feet at includes nine bedrooms, nine fireplaces and so much more. “There are two living rooms, and other spaces including a theater, a game room with a bar, and a gym with a bath and sauna. There are two offices and a craft room, as well,” Fox News reported.

The location was an amusement park dedicated to the wildly popular NBC show. Officials opened it in 1968 but the land was sold to developers in 2004, The Las Vegas Sun reported. Owners reopened the park dedicated to the show years later at a different location.

The Former ‘Bonanza’ House Still Exists — Kind of

If you miss the rustic simplicity of the original Cartwright home from Bonanza there’s still a chance to find it. Despite the fact that the set for the Ponderosa Ranch was taken apart when the show ended in 1973, an exact replica exists. Actor Loren Greene who played Ben Cartwright had it built in the early 1960s.

You’ll need to do a little traveling from the sprawling beach of Lake Tahoe. Ponderosa II resides in Mesa, Arizona.

Officials had it included in the National Register of History Places. Realtors put it on the market in 2016 and eventually sold for $475,000 in 2019, according to Estately.