Curse from a Rose

In this episode of Bonanza , which by the way, I actually kind of enjoyed (certainly much more than the first episode!), I decided that at some point in my life, I'd like to make my way through all 431 of these episodes. Why? Well, this episode actually caused me to think a little bit. If I can suspend my disbelief - if I can just pretend that it's set in 1858 or 1859 rather than 1849, I actually find myself enjoying it a lot more. It's definitely the post-Mormon period of the area, at least by the looks of the town: full of gruff men, not a lot of families - certainly no plural wives! - all the women are prostitutes, and saloons exist. In Judge Hyde's day, even dancing was outlawed! (I'll find the source citation for that later). But hey, the prostitute in this episode, Glory, was articulate and intelligent. Much more humanizing than the previous episode's portrayal of women. She was not very happy with her lot in life, but she kind of accepted it. ...

I watched this episode and thought to myself, "UGH. There is no way I can continue to watch this series." Even though it's a clean, interesting adventure story set in the exact right time and place  that I am currently researching, there was just so much wrong with it. I mean, for starters, the Wikipedia page for Bonanza says it is set in 1849.  Um, no way. NO WAY. This is not what Virginia City, Carson Valley area (which wasn't even a county), Utah Territory looked like ca 1849. There was only one  manufacturing facility in the area in 1855 , which was Orson Hyde's sawmill which he ended up reluctantly leasing to my ancestor, Jacob H. Rose, in 1856.  The other big problems I had were: - 1940's/1950's style dress on the vaudeville actress woman who was singing more of a ca 1880's/1890's song. The Chinese didn't show up in the area until 1856 or 1857. Possibly even as late as 1859. NOT  1849. Also...what's w...