The Making of Guns of Ponderosa -- Part VI

What about the naming of Ponderosa? The town's not named after the Cartwrights' famous TV ranch. Actually, in the first draft the town's name was Sponsellorville. One of my readers said no one would remember the town's name, that it was too difficult. Well, Pete Sponsellor ran sheep on the mountain near the town, and his sheep were shipped to market on his own siding which we all knew as Sponsellor's Siding, so I naturally thought Ol' Pete wouldn't mind if I named my fictional town after him. After the reader complained, though, I renamed the town Ponderosa, after the tall pines that Comstock Log and Lumber cut into planks to help build the West.
The photo's from the Show Low Historical Society and is a little later model of engine than the one that would have run in Guns of Ponderosa, but the atmosphere is the same.