Every now and then the fictional Cartwrights of Bonanza come up against real life history which was adapted into a Bonanza episode. The War Comes To Washoe is one of those stories.
There was an episode of Bonanza a few years earlier where Pernell Roberts born of a New England mother and Michael Landon whose mother was Louisiana French got into when a southern sympathizer came to Virginia City to get the territory to commit to the new Confederacy. Now years later the issue is Nevada statehood.
The real life character of William Stewart played by Barry Kelley is in this episode. Stewart was in real life one of the big supporters of statehood, he was a Nevada silver king. His opposite is Harry Townes who is a southerner from Virginia who lost a son during the Civil War. His daughter Joyce Taylor is in love with Little Joe.
As in that other episode Roberts and Landon are at opposite ends. But when Lorne Greene sends Adam and Hoss on Ponderosa business away from the statehood convention, it's Greene and Landon who become delegates and the southerners are appealing to Landon in a variety of ways.
Alan Caillou is in The War Comes To Washoe as a touring British Shakespearean actor who in actuality is in the pay of Manchester textile interests who want the south to win the Civil War. He gets Townes interested in an alternate agenda should the convention not vote statehood.
In real life Nevada was admitted to the union in 1864 because Lincoln was very concerned that the silver mines of the Comstock Lode not fall into Confederate hands. Nevada territory did not even have the required population to be admitted when it was, but such niceties were forgotten during wartime.
As for The War Comes To Washoe, I have a bit of problem with the idea that the Ponderosa itself was entitled to two delegates to the Nevada Statehood convention. Were there that many hands on the spread?
Some problems with this episode make it not one of the better Bonanza episodes.
There was an episode of Bonanza a few years earlier where Pernell Roberts born of a New England mother and Michael Landon whose mother was Louisiana French got into when a southern sympathizer came to Virginia City to get the territory to commit to the new Confederacy. Now years later the issue is Nevada statehood.
The real life character of William Stewart played by Barry Kelley is in this episode. Stewart was in real life one of the big supporters of statehood, he was a Nevada silver king. His opposite is Harry Townes who is a southerner from Virginia who lost a son during the Civil War. His daughter Joyce Taylor is in love with Little Joe.
As in that other episode Roberts and Landon are at opposite ends. But when Lorne Greene sends Adam and Hoss on Ponderosa business away from the statehood convention, it's Greene and Landon who become delegates and the southerners are appealing to Landon in a variety of ways.
Alan Caillou is in The War Comes To Washoe as a touring British Shakespearean actor who in actuality is in the pay of Manchester textile interests who want the south to win the Civil War. He gets Townes interested in an alternate agenda should the convention not vote statehood.
In real life Nevada was admitted to the union in 1864 because Lincoln was very concerned that the silver mines of the Comstock Lode not fall into Confederate hands. Nevada territory did not even have the required population to be admitted when it was, but such niceties were forgotten during wartime.
As for The War Comes To Washoe, I have a bit of problem with the idea that the Ponderosa itself was entitled to two delegates to the Nevada Statehood convention. Were there that many hands on the spread?
Some problems with this episode make it not one of the better Bonanza episodes.
