Date Posted:23:52:50 01/27/20 Mon Author: Michael (Busch) Subject: Re: Original Ponderosa, Trout Creek Ontario
Greetings John May. I grew up on what is now the Ponderosa Road when it used to be called the Barrett Road. The property of which you speak used to be on my father's trapline, Joseph Busch, which I helped him with and took over for a few of my teenage years and early 20s. The property was owned by Walter and Jimmy Stern who were in the film industry in Toronto. Jimmy Stern amongst other things was a double for Paladin in the Paladin series. They had a large number of horses and a horse farm outside Toronto. Many of the horses were pastored up here and across from the property my siblings and I still own on the Ponderosa Road. That particular property is now owned by my cousin Johnny Georgie. The horses were riding horses used in the film industry; especially Texas quarter horses. Some test footage was shot on your property. Dad and I were walking through your property and observed a camera set up while people were galloping past on horseback. There were 2 horse barns and a bulldozed town site for setting up a Western town. Dad was a friend of Walter and Jimmy Stern and we often stopped to talk when we saw that they were up from Toronto. Yes they were trying to get the Bonanza series footage shot at this location. Once when I was a child, on the Ponderosa Road between my father's property and Larry Gauthier's property we were stopped and talking to 1 of the Sterns in a convertible. The convertible's top was down. In the backseat behind the driver seat was a large man who asked if I knew him. I told him no at which time everybody laughed. His name was Dan Blocker, Hoss on the Bonanza series. Bonanza was on at 9 o'clock which was past our bedtime so we never got to see it. I think it was at that same time that the character that played Adam on the Bonanza series was on a horse and jokingly through a lasso around me. This Sterns never did manage to land a film contract. I hope this information is helpful. Michael Busch
I knew both Kent McCray and Joan Markowitz, both worked on Bonanza and NBC and they made no mention of any locations in Canada. Both worked closely with David Dortort and I knew them well. Firstly, the series was a US production (not Canadian) and the West Coast in California and Nevada was the primary choice. There was a rumor going around in 1967 they were going to film in Hawaii in the 1967-68 season and that is all it was.
