After Ben passed in the late 1800s, the three boys would have inherited the ranch. Then what? All those acres.. Eventually the taxes would have caught up with them and they would have had to sell much of it off, or donate it to create a wildlife park. The could have kept the choice lake front property and had a hell of an estate..
shareWell it wold have gone to the two sons I guess as it was acknowledged in canon that Hoss died..
shareI imagine Adam would have most likely want to sell it off and start his own life. Cause after Hoss passes away, only Adam and Joe, maybe Candy, would be left to run it.
shareI don't think Adam would have sold it. He knew how much it meant to his father. I think he would have been content to let Joe run the place and receive income from its operation.
shareWhat about Jamie (later adopted & changed name to Jamie Cartwright)? I think Ben would have been smart enough to create trusts and anything else legally needed to make sure the Ponderosa stayed in Cartwright hands... Isn't that what most of the series is about?
shareThey did reunion movies that answered these questions.
shareI think the sons would have had to donate much of the land to forever wild type reserve or park at some point due to taxes(which would have destroyed them eventually) It then would have remained mostly as it was. This would have allowed them to get out from under the tax monster.
shareFrom our friends at the IRS, the modern estate tax took effect in 1916. So probably the grandchildren of Adam and Joe would have been crushed by the tax monster. Adam and Joe could have been okay.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/ninetyestate.pdf
The property taxes alone would have forced them to sell. Estate taxes would have just made it worse.
shareUnless the timber/lumber, mining and cattle business was profitable enough to keep the ranch going despite the taxes.
shareOr as the government does now, lease out grazing lands to other ranchers to make enough money to keep it going.
Back then, though, I think it would have been more common to sell off parcels.
I wonder how much longer they would have lived in the house. Eventually with the advent of electricity, phones and plumbing the place would become obsolete or at least impractical to try and upgrade. Would have probably taken another generation though. The old house was solidly built so it may have been converted to be used for storage.
shareNot true at all. In the town where I was born are thousands of homes built in the late 1800s that did not feature indoor plumbing, central heat, or electricity. While electrical wiring was run inside walls many of them feature external pipes for steam heat. Those houses still stand today. It's far cheaper to retrofit a home than to raze it just to add those features.
Check out those lousy "TV movie of the week" sequels from the '80s and '90s to find out what happened to the Ponderosa into the early 20th century.
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