Endless miles of vast land stretch as far as the eye can see, but only a few families own much of it. Almost half of all American farmland is owned by people who don't actually farm themselves. Many of these wealthy families make their fortunes in the lumber and forest industry, with millions of acres in timberland throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The largest landowners run cattle operations and farms throughout the Great Plains and the West. Some ranches include land leased from the state or government for cattle grazing, while others offer oil and gas revenue. Traditionally, family members hold onto their property through generations, which is why the top 100 landowners control a great majority of the country's ranches.

Every year, the industry stalwart The Land Report releases its Top 100 list of America's leading landowners. This year's list features America's largest landowner, Red Emmerson. Along with his family (sons George and Mark), he owns 2,411,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Washington with the leading timber-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries.

Oregon timberland management

getty

Once the Emmerson’s acquired Oregon timberland in 2021, they moved ahead of cable magnate John Malone’s 2,200,000 acres. CNN founder Ted Turner is currently America’s third largest landowner, with 2 million acres in the Southeast, on the Great Plains, and across the West.

Younger land investors are jumping in this year with a new crop under 50 years old. “Major moves by independent investors stood out in this year’s Land Report 100,” says Eric O’Keefe, Editor of the Land Report. “Tianqiao Chen (50) joined the Land Report 100 at No. 82 with 198,000 acres. Shannon Kizer (48) added 34,000 acres to move up to No. 24, and Stefan Soloviev (48) increased his holdings to 535,000 acres when he bought the LE Ranch. That puts him at No. 21 on the list.”

Figure 2 Ranch in the Texas Sierra Diablo Mountain range owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos

Houston Chronicle

The selection of the Top 100 is a lengthy process with a research team analyzing transactions and records to determine America’s leading landowners. That’s how they broke the news in 2020: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was America’s largest farmland owner, with more than 260,000 acres. This year, they also identified Chinese gaming billionaire Tianqiao Chen owning almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland.

Among the most recognizable landowners from the Top 100 list are Jeff Bezos (420,000), Bill Gates (275,000), and Taylor Sheridan (265,000). For the complete list, visit The Land Report. Here are the Top 20 from the exhaustive list of landowners in the U.S.

Emmerson Family (2,411,000 acres)

With massive landholdings in California, Oregon, and Washington, the Emmerson family owns and sustainably manages more than 2.4 million acres of timberland. Through their forest-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries, they are among the largest US producers of lumber, millwork, windows, and renewable energy. They prioritize creating quality wood products, rural job opportunities, wildfire-resilient forests, wildlife habitats, and recreational spaces.

Spruce Meadows trail on John Malone's Greenland Ranch in Colorado

Denver Post via Getty Images

John Malone (2,200,000)

Cable/sports billionaire magnate John Malone (Liberty Media, Atlanta Braves, Formula 1) has landholdings in Wyoming, New Mexico, Florida, and Colorado. The Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation supports the mission of The Land Institute. Since its founding in 1976, the Salina, Kansas-based nonprofit has been dedicated to science-based research and developing food-production methods that sustain the land and the soil.

According to Land Report, “The Institute’s Perennial Agriculture Project, led by a team of plant breeders and ecologists in multiple partnerships worldwide, is a paradigm shift that focuses on developing perennial grains, pulses, and oilseed-bearing plants to be grown in ecologically intensified, diverse crop mixtures known as perennial polycultures. Such a production system mimics the benefits found in native and natural ecosystems.”

Horseback riding at Vermejo Ted Turner Reserves in Northern New Mexico

Ted Turner Reserves

Ted Turner (2,000,000)

Billionaire cable guru Ted Turner is best known for founding CNN and controls vast land holdings in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota and New Mexico. His Vermejo Park Ranch has led the way in regenerative tourism. Ted Turner Reserves, oversees a network of luxury New Mexico hospitality properties, which include 1.1 million acres across the Land of Enchantment. The Turner Foundation Inc, is dedicated to protecting and restoring America's natural environments.

Waggoner Ranch recently purchased by billionaire Stan Kroenke for $720 million

Chas. S. Middleton and Son

Stan Kroenke (1,700,000)

Real estate and sports billionaire Stan Kroenke (married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke) has extensive land holdings in Texas, Wyoming, and Nevada, “Kroenke Ranches is taking bold new steps on Texas’s Waggoner Ranch by adopting a holistic approach to the ecological management of the historic 560,000-acre ranch’s significant wildlife resources,” says O’Keefe. “The primary land-management techniques currently being employed by the Wildlife Division are targeted specifically at quail and white-tailed deer habitats. Since Stan Kroenke purchased the Waggoner Ranch in February 2016, brush management has been performed on more than 150,000 acres of the 875-square-mile landholding. This comprehensive management philosophy has served to promote populations of native grasses and forbs and to enhance habitat diversity on the largest single ranch under one fence in the Lone Star State.”

Reed Family (1,661,000)

Holding land throughout California, Washington and Oregon, this sixth-generation, family-owned forest-products-company has grown and nurtured its landholdings in the West and, more recently, the Southeast. Green Diamond Resource Company was founded in 1890 as Simpson Logging Company by Sol Simpson. The lumberman was a tireless innovator whose many advances included the introduction of mechanized log-hauling machines. According to Land Report, “In addition to its deeded ownership, Green Diamond Management Company has an undisclosed interest in Twin Creeks Timber LLC, a 609,000-acre joint venture with Silver Creek Capital Management. All of the joint venture’s working forests in the West and the Southeast are certified under the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) standards.”

Irving Family (1,267,792)

The J.D. Irving Company recently celebrated its 140th anniversary recently. James Dergavel “J.D.” Irving left his native Scotland for New Brunswick, Canada. where he founded a timber enterprise that eventually included a sawmill, a gristmill, and a carding mill, along with several farms. His son, K.C., acquired substantial landholdings in New Brunswick, as well as in neighboring Maine. According to Land Report, “The Irvings currently rank as the Pine Tree State’s largest private landowners. Equally impressive is their legacy of forest stewardship. Irving Woodlands has planted more than 1 billion trees in Canada and the US, and all of the company’s Maine woodlands are certified under the Forest Stewardship Council program.”

Buck Family (1,236,000)

A native of South Portland, Maine, Peter Buck (1930—2021) studied at Bowdoin College before earning advanced degrees in physics at Columbia University. While employed at GE, Buck made the fateful decision to loan Fred DeLuca, the son of a family friend, $1,000 to launch Pete’s Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Buck also tendered a suggestion to his new partner: Study the culinary creations of Amato’s, a popular Italian sandwich shop at the corner of India and Newbury Streets near where Buck grew up. His advice and his investment helped to create Subway. Decades later, when the sandwich shop became a global powerhouse, Buck returned to his roots and invested a portion of his profits in Maine timberland, which now belongs to his heirs.

Singleton Ranches in New Mexico

Singleton Ranches

Singleton Family (1,100,000)

The descendants of Henry Singleton (1916—1999) oversee Singleton Ranches, which the co-founder of Teledyne Inc. launched in 1986. That was the year the electrical engineer purchased the 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch (above) in New Mexico’s historic Galisteo Basin. Singleton subsequently expanded his landholdings by acquiring numerous Spanish land grants, primarily in New Mexico but also in California. The many honors that have been earned and bestowed upon Singleton Ranches include being recognized by the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) with its prestigious Best Remuda Award in 2012. Singleton stallions work all aspects of the cattle operation and are bred to ranch mares during the breeding season.

Brad Kelley's Dawson Elk Valley Ranch in New Mexico currently for sale for $95 million

Mirr Ranch Group

Brad Kelley (1,000,000)

Brad Kelley founded a tobacco company in 1990 (USA Gold and Malibu cigarettes) and sold it for $1 billion in 2001. His properties span Texas, New Mexico, and Florida and are used to breed rare species of animals. The state of Texas purchased 17,000 acres of his property in 2014.

The Kentucky native currently has New Mexico’s Dawson Elk Valley Ranch listed with Jeff Hubbard of Mirr Ranch Group for $96 million. According to biologists’ estimates, 10,000 elk roam the rugged slopes and river bottoms on Kelley’s ranch and Ted Turner’s neighboring Vermejo. Together, the two comprise much of New Mexico’s coveted Game Management Unit 55A. In addition to this 50,039-acre New Mexico listing, Kelley has 600,000-plus acres in Far West Texas listed with King Land & Water for more than $400 million. This unparalleled assemblage includes 430,305-acre Brewster Ranch ($299 million), 113,650-acre Y-6 Ranch ($80 million), and the 77,261-acre Eagle Mountain and Carrizo Mountain Ranches ($56 million).

King Ranch Heirs (911,215)

King Ranch has long been known as an innovator. According to Land Report, “In 1940, the USDA recognized the ranch’s Santa Gertrudis as the first beef breed to be developed in the US. This legacy of innovation continues to this day. In August 2023, the Department of Energy announced that the Birthplace of American Ranching was selected as the site of its South Texas Direct Air Capture Hub. The Energy Department selected 1PointFive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Occidental, to receive a grant to develop the hub on King Ranch. Direct air capture is a process that separates CO2 from the air and thus helps to reduce legacy CO2 in the atmosphere. Such a process is in keeping with the tradition of land stewardship on King Ranch that dates back 170 years to Captain King himself.”

Pingree Heirs (830,000)

David Pingree, Sr., a successful shipping merchant from Salem, Massachusetts, invested in Maine’s timberlands in the mid-1800s as a means of diversifying. Today, the timberland legacy lives on, with the family owning more than three-quarters of a million acres of Maine forestland.

Briscoe Family (738,000)

The late Texas Governor Dolph Briscoe Jr. expanded his holdings when oil and gas were discovered on his ranch land. The family still owns ranches and oilfields throughout Texas.

Wilks Brothers (675,000)

Dan Wilks and his brother Farris are the largest landowners in Montana, and Idaho. According to The Land Report, “The pair, who made a fortune selling an oil fracking business, recently denied reports that their land purchases were for oil and gas exploration, saying instead they were for ranching.”

Lykes Family (615,000)

The Lykes' family-owned company began as a cattle ranching operation and has since expanded into bioenergy and farming. They own ranch lands and farms in Texas and Florida. The family is one of the largest producers of citrus with groves in Florida.

Ford Family (600,000)

The Ford family’s Roseburg Forest Products had its origins in 1936 when the Roseburg Lumber Company was founded by owner Kenneth Ford. They own timberland throughout Oregon and California.

O'Connor Heirs (587,800)

D.M. O'Connor continued to expand the land his father, Thomas O'Connor, was awarded in the Battle of San Jacinto. Oil was discovered on their cattle ranches, and today the O'Connors own an estimated half-million acres across Southern and Western Texas.

Thomas Peterffy (581,000)

Thomas Peterffy is a Hungarian-born businessman who founded the stock broker firm Interactive Brokers and developed one of the first computerized stock-trading platforms.

In 2015, Peterffy purchased a massive plot of timberland in Florida from Foley Timber & Land, forming the basis for his land holdings.

Westervelt Heirs (566,000)

Beginning in the late 19th century, the Westervelts focused primarily on paper production. That changed in 2005 when the family’s Gulf States Paper business sold most of its manufacturing assets. The renamed Westervelt Company owned approximately 400,000 acres of timberland, a figure that has since grown to more than 500,000 acres.

Stimson Family (552,000)

The Stimson family has owned the Stimson Lumber Company for six generations, according to the company. The company owns over 500,000 acres of forest land in Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, and operates seven lumber mills in Oregon and Idaho.

Martin Family (550,000)

The Martin family owns and operates the RoyOMartin lumber company, founded three generations ago in Louisiana. The company is a subsidiary of the family's equity investment firm, Martin Sustainable Resources.

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