As the world's third-largest country by landmass, it's no surprise that America is known as the land of plenty – and some people are lucky enough to own plenty of that land. In fact, relatively few people control the nation's ample acreage today.

From ranchers who have owned land for generations to newcomer billionaires splashing their cash, read on to discover America’s 50 biggest landowners using data from the 2026 edition of The Land Report.

The Galt family has its fingers in many pies, with Errol Galt overseeing the Martinsdale Ranch in central Montana and son Wylie Galt (pictured) serving as a member of the Montana House of Representatives.

Politics runs in the family – Errol's great-aunt Jeannette made history as the first woman elected to Congress. Meanwhile, his grandfather Wellington Rankin, who died in 1966, was reportedly Montana’s largest landowner. The family still owns 262,000 acres in the state, which includes the well-known 71 Ranch. 

Hollywood's Taylor Sheridan, the producer, writer, and actor known for the TV series Yellowstone and its prequels 1883 and 1923, purchased Texas' historic 6666 Ranch in 2022. Previous owner Anne Marion had inherited the estate from her great-grandfather, kept the family business going, and founded the Burnett Oil Company in 1980.

Her interest in art led her to open the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and she also served on boards of trustees for various art galleries. Marion passed away in February 2020, and her family sold the ranch, which encompasses an entire county. 

The Trues bought Double Four Ranch in Wyoming in 1957, stocking it with just 35 cows and one bull. Over the last 60 years, it's grown into an enterprise of eight ranches, two farms, and a feedlot. Today, it produces around 7,500 calves each year.

Pipelines, trucking, and drilling are the main occupations of this Wyoming-based bunch. Head of the clan Dave True (pictured second from left), has also served in various roles on the board of trustees at the University of Wyoming, where both he and his wife Melanie studied.

When Floyd and Frances Lee bought New Mexico’s Fernandez Ranch, later renamed Floyd Lee Ranch, they weren’t expecting it to contain large deposits of uranium or the coal seams they later discovered.

By the time the couple passed away towards the end of the 20th century, the family had also set up a successful sheep and cattle operation. The discovery and subsequent hard work were clearly fruitful, as the Lee family has since made a name for itself both in farming and mining. 

The Jones family's estate once stretched over 300,000 acres, starting with the 1890s purchase of the 34,000-acre Alta Vista Ranch in Texas, which contains many historic structures dating back to the Spanish colonial era. The land is rich with wildlife, including white-tailed deer, quail, wild turkey, and many other birds.

The Jones' descendants still manage and reside on the family's ranches today and have expanded the business into oil and agriculture.

More than 130 years ago, Dave and Billy Babbitt arrived in Flagstaff, Arizona, and quickly acquired numerous ranches. Today, these span an impressive 275,000 acres, and herds of cattle graze on the land. The Babbitts also run the Hashknife Horse program, which focuses on breeding working Quarter Horses.

In 2023, Babbitt Ranches announced plans to build a new wind energy center on 669 acres of its historic CO Bar Ranch. 50 wind turbines will generate 161 megawatts of electricity.

In 2021, the Land Report revealed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates was the largest private farmland owner in America. In 2018, he bought 14,500 acres in Washington for $171 million, according to British newspaper The Guardian, and has since bolstered his estate by more than 250,000 acres.

Gates now has a total of 275,000 acres of farmland across 17 states, mostly purchased by his investment firm. The tech tycoon plans to build "the most advanced nuclear facility in the world" on a 44-acre site in Kemmerer, Wyoming

At its famous 06 ranch, a household name in Texas, the seventh generation of the Kokernot family still relies on traditional methods for herding cattle.

The Kokernots acquired the ranch in 1872 and followed this up with the purchase of the Leoncita Cattle Company, bringing the total acreage under their control to 278,000. 

Founded in 1984, Southern Pine Plantations has overseen transactions for timberland and farmland alike for over 40 years. Owner Benjy Griffith III decided in the 1990s to expand into commercial development, a move that proved successful for the firm.

Via his companies and his heirs, Griffith owns land in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas.

The landholdings of Austin-based Llano Partners Ltd., headed by Hughes Abell, are spread across ranches in Texas, New Mexico, and Florida. While much of the family's business is centered on ranching, farming, and cattle-feeding operations, the firm also has investments in energy, timber, and real estate. 

This Canadian family may have headed south but its fortune certainly hasn’t. The Fasken's legacy began in 1913 when Toronto-based David Fasken bought a ranch in Texas, only to discover it was home to an enormous oil reserve.

Today, the clan owns 284,493 acres and remains active in the oil and gas sector. 

In 1954, ranch owner D.M. Cogdell Sr bought the 27,000-acre Tule Ranch near Tulia, Texas, moving his cattle from nearby Snyder. When he died in 1964, his daughter continued to operate the ranch in Snyder, and his sons took over the ranching interests in the Panhandle until they decided to split their inheritance in the 1970s.

Billy and his wife Bette kept the original Tule Ranch, adding more land over the years. The family continues to own Tule Ranch and others across the Texas panhandle to this day and has branched out into the oil and gas industry.

D.R. Horton, America's largest home builder, was founded by Don Horton (pictured) almost 50 years ago. Over the years, the firm's founder busily acquired colossal swaths of land in the southwestern US. 

Don passed away in 2024, and his relatives have since sold his Great Western Ranch in New Mexico. Listed at $115 million, the buyer and final sale price have yet to be revealed, although the sale significantly trimmed the family's total acreage.

Texas native Dan Allen Hughes Sr., who died in 2016, accumulated a billion-dollar fortune in oil and natural gas and pumped some of the proceeds into what is now the family's 319,000-acre land holdings across Texas.

The estate is currently owned and operated by his son, Dan Allen Hughes Jr., who also runs the family's oil firm DAHCO.

Barta Cattle Company in Nebraska was founded by Jim Barta, who made his money as the founder of Sav-Rx Prescription Services and passed away at the end of 2019. Instead of flowers at the funeral, the family asked that guests donate to a scholarship fund to help young people study agriculture.

The rest of the family currently looks after 340,000 acres of land in Nebraska, Oregon, and Nevada.

Another family that made big bucks in the oil industry, the Killams currently own 341,000 acres of land across Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon, and New Mexico.

O.W. Killam started drilling for oil over a century ago and went on to buy his first 10,000-acre ranch in 1927. Today, his descendants control the family ranch and cattle company. 

Malone and Amy Mitchell founded Riata Energy, now SandRidge Energy, in their guest bedroom in 1985. Two decades later, they sold the company for $500 million and launched the Riata Corporate Group in 2006.

Today, the entrepreneurial couple's Longfellow Ranches in West Texas comprise a working cattle operation, a natural gas field, and a hunting and wildlife retreat with a 4,700-square-foot lodge.

Mike Smith hit the headlines in March 2018 with the high-profile acquisition of the luxury Broseco Ranch, which was listed for sale at $34 million. The property included a 2,000-strong cattle herd, lakes filled with bass, and a herd of whitetail deer.

In 2021, Smith added 41,000 acres to his estate, and in 2022, he bought the Flat Top Division of the historic Swenson Ranch in West Texas.

The family-owned Collins Company holds the accolade of being the first private forestry company in America to have all its forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Although headquartered in Oregon, the family actually entered the timber business in Pennsylvania back in 1855.

However, by the turn of the century, the family had expanded west and now has five manufacturing facilities in addition to its 370,000 acres of land across the US.

The Robinson and Freed families joined forces in the mid-20th century. They co-owned the Deseret Land and Livestock Ranch, which they sold before jointly purchasing several other ranches.

Today, their joint venture, the Ensign Group, boasts 373,000 acres after purchasing 23 acres in Idaho's Pioneer Mountains in 2025.

In 1959, Sid, Ed (pictured), Robert, and Lee Bass each inherited $2.8 million from their great-uncle, the oil tycoon Sid Richardson. Since then, the brothers have all become billionaires, according to Forbes.

The richest among them is Robert, who has accumulated a net worth of $7 billion through landholdings, investments, and other businesses. Today, the Bass family is the largest landowner in Kansas with 110,000 acres.

The late family patriarch Robert Earl Holding (pictured) had interests in ski resorts and owned Sinclair Oil, providing the family with an enviable portfolio of real estate in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana. Since Holding's death in 2013, the multimillion-dollar operation has been run by Holding's widow Carol and their three children. Carol passed away in 2024 at the age of 95.

Daughter Anne made headlines in 2023 when she appealed a court order to pay her ex-husband a $200 million divorce settlement. She argued it was wrong for the judge to consider her family inheritance as part of the property to be divided in the divorce proceedings.

Clifford Skiles Jr., president of Cottonwood Cattle Company, ranked 83rd on the 2021 Land Report with 195,000 acres, and more recent purchases ensconced the family firmly in the top 50 before Clifford's death in February 2025.

One of those recent purchases, the 71,000-acre Canadian River Ranch in the Texas Panhandle, is a famed cattle ranch, one of the largest in the region, and has been around for 150 years. The property has numerous creeks, dramatic cliffs, and free-ranging wildlife.

Family patriarch Thomas O'Connor lucked out big time when he was granted 4,428 acres of land in Victoria County, Texas, back in 1834. By the time he died, his estate was reportedly the largest individual land and cattle holding in Texas and worth $4.5 million at the time.

Over the years, the Irish immigrant's descendants have expanded the family's holdings to a hefty 410,000 acres, although this figure was closer to 600,000 acres just a few years ago.

Kenedy Ranch in Kenedy County, Texas, was established in 1882 by Mifflin Kenedy, a steamboat operator and rancher. It began as a cattle ranch but has generated additional revenues over the years from streams as varied as guided hunting and wind farms.

The ranch was passed down through the Kenedy family until the death of Mifflin's granddaughter, Sarita Kenedy East, in 1961. Sarita passed away leaving no heirs, and following lengthy legal battles, the ranch is now owned by the John G. and Marie Stella Kenedy Memorial Foundation and the John G. Kenedy Jr. Charitable Trust.

Doris and Donald Fisher, the couple who founded The Gap clothing store chain back in 1969, quietly snapped up hundreds of thousands of acres of land in California from the 1970s onwards. Donald died in 2009, while Doris passed away in 2026. Their children, who are each worth billions, now control a massive sustainable forestry business.

The family made headlines in 2019 when it was revealed that they, along with a number of other billionaires, had given millions of dollars to a "dark money" group that attempted to prevent the election of Barack Obama in 2012. 

Potato tycoon John Richard Simplot (pictured), who died in 2008, founded his eponymous vegetable firm in 1929 and made a fortune supplying frozen French fries to McDonald's during the 1970s.

Simplot has since expanded into mining and manufacturing, spreading the Idaho-based company's operations around the world. The firm is still family-owned and employs more than 13,000 people worldwide.

A New Mexico native, Kizer also owns land in four other states – Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Texas – and runs a dairy cattle business. He also grows a variety of crops, including corn, hay, peanuts, and wheat.

In 2023, he bought and sold several ranches, including a substantial portion of the Double V ranch in New Mexico previously owned by Don Horton. In 2025, he purchased Middle Creek Ranch in Oklahoma, bringing his total land holdings to 445,000 acres.

Zane and Tanya Kiehne were newcomers to the Land Report in 2018. In the years since, they've climbed the rankings thanks to land acquisitions in New Mexico and Texas. 

Their company, Z&T Holdings, primarily owns mountainous properties rich with wildlife, and the Kiehnes are committed to improving rangeland conditions across their acreage.  

The world's third-richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos isn't just responsible for one of the biggest businesses on the planet. Thanks to his ownership of 462,000 acres in the southeast, he's also one of America's principal private landowners.

Much of the land was acquired by Bezos' Blue Origin aerospace company and serves as the firm's base of operations, launch pad, and testing site.

The Martin family owns the RoyOMartin group of companies, named for founder Roy O. Martin, who bought the Creston Lumber Mill in Alexandria, Louisiana for $32,000 in 1923.

The company, which celebrated its centenary in 2023, has grown substantially over the past 100 years and is now led by grandson Roy O. Martin III (pictured). Just making the top 20, the Martins own a total of 550,000 acres.

As major landowners, the Stimson family owns one of America's oldest, continuously operating wood products companies. The Stimson Lumber Company was established before the Civil War, and the clan now controls an ever-expanding portfolio of forested land across Montana, Oregon, and Idaho. 

More than 650 people work for the sixth-generation firm, which boasts seven mills. 

The family-owned Westervelt Company has been in business for over 140 years. Established in 1884 by Herbert Westervelt as the Prairie States Paper Corporation, it's one of America's leading land resource organizations, with a total of 566,000 acres of forest across six US states.

The Alabama-based firm also owns acreage in New Zealand, where it focuses on forest stewardship, agriculture, recreation, and experiential tourism.

Kenneth Ford, the Ford family patriarch, came from humble beginnings and established a small sawmill in Roseburg, Oregon, in 1936. Fast-forward 90 years, and Ford's descendants own a total of 600,000 acres of forest in Oregon, California, North Carolina, and Virginia.

However, the family is significantly lower on the Land Report list than it was a couple of years ago, having sold 170,000 acres of land to the Australian firm Shasta Cascade Timberlands.

Dr. Howell Lykes shut down his medical practice in the 1870s and moved to Florida to take over his family's 500-acre ranch. Continuing to buy up swaths of land, the family started Lykes Bros. Inc. in 1900.

Today, the doctor's heirs control 615,000 acres across the state and in Texas, devoted to citrus farming, sugarcane cultivation, and cattle ranching. In 2025, a deer hunter discovered a rare mammoth tusk in a dry creek bed on the family's O2 Ranch in Texas.

Brad Kelley, who has a net worth of $1.4 billion, sold his Commonwealth Brands tobacco company in 2001 for $1 billion. The reclusive tycoon has sold off around 500,000 acres of land, with his most recent sale involving the Dawson Elk Valley Ranch in New Mexico in 2025.

As a result, Kelley has dropped several spots in the Land Report's top 100 to rank 15th, but he still owns 624,000 acres of ranching land in Florida and New Mexico.

In April 2018, Sheldon Solow passed the reins of his property development firm on to his son Stefan, who changed his surname to reflect the historic spelling. The firm controls swaths of land in New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado, and Stefan has rapidly expanded acquisitions in recent years.

In 2023, he purchased the Le Ranch in New Mexico from D.K. Boyd. The transaction added 106,000 acres to Soloviev's holdings, knocking Boyd out the Top 50, and he's since added an additional 80,000 acres in New Mexico to his portfolio.

A digital investment pioneer, Hungarian refugee Thomas Peterffy has certainly made the US his home. Peterffy first drew attention when he started automating trading floors with computers, but he doesn’t spend all his time behind a screen. In 2015, Peterffy also made waves in the land sector when he bought Foley Timber & Land, a vast swath of forest that covers five Florida counties. At 581,000 acres, it's almost as big as Rhode Island.

Peterffy has since added to his land holdings in Florida, bringing his total acreage to 647,000.

Former bricklayers Dan and Farris Wilks got into fracking in 2002 and made their fortunes from the industry's growth during the 2000s. In 2011, they became billionaires for the first time when they sold their company for $3.5 billion.

The brothers have invested a sizable chunk of their fortune in land ownership, as well as leading a $6 million investment in LandTrust, an Airbnb-style land-sharing marketplace.

Practically Texan royalty, the Briscoe family ranks 11th and currently boasts 738,000 acres, including the 100,000-acre Catarina Ranch in South Texas. Several illustrious ancestors played a key part in the state's history, including Andrew Briscoe, a signatory of the Texas Declaration of Independence, and Dolph Briscoe Jr. (pictured), a former governor of the state.

Today, their descendants control a seemingly ever-expanding portfolio of land.

Hugh Roy Cullen (pictured) started his lucrative oil career in 1918 drilling wells, and went on to discover the Tom O’Connor field in Texas. Fast-forward 100 years, and the Texas-native Cullen family is among the top 10 biggest landowners in America.

Nowadays, the Cullens mostly deal in coal, despite having made their fortune from Hugh’s oil empire. 

Shipping magnate David Pingree started acquiring land in Maine over 150 years ago, building up a portfolio of almost a million acres across the state and in New Hampshire.

These days, around 830,000 acres in Maine remain and are controlled by Pingree's numerous descendants through the Seven Island Lands Company. The company mainly produces birch, ash, and maple, which are used for flooring.

Sprawling over 825,000 acres, King Ranch is the largest ranch in Texas and is located between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. The gargantuan operation, larger than the state of Rhode Island, was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and his partners.

His heirs still control the ranch, which generates income from ranching, farming, and hunting. King Ranch also deals in citrus fruits, with additional acreage owned in California and Florida, and is currently the largest producer of juice oranges in the US. In 2021, the ranch achieved another milestone when its breeding program produced its first American Quarter Horse Association world champion. 

The Canadian Irving family controls a whopping 1,267,000 acres of land in America. Its holdings include a giant tract of wooded land in Northern Maine – which it harvests sustainably under the Forest Stewardship Council program – and 1.9 million acres in Canada.

In 2018, the Irvings planted their one billionth tree as part of their continued efforts to be a sustainable business. 

The co-founder of Subway and a nuclear physicist to boot, Dr. Peter Buck was worth $1.7 billion by the time he died in November 2021. In 2019, his landownership reached the one-million-acre mark, most of which is in Maine.

His two sons, William and Christopher, are believed to have inherited the land. 

Dating back six generations, the Reed family's Green Diamond Resources Company owns over 1.6 million acres of land in eight states across the Pacific Northwest and the South, having substantially increased its holdings with the purchase of the SDS Lumber Company in November 2021.

Like the Irving family and other key landowners in the top 50, the Reeds are all about sustainable forestry and conservation, harvesting less than 2% of their timberland a year.

CNN founder Ted Turner passed away in May 2026. At the time of his death, the media magnate controlled two million acres of land across the US, primarily devoted to eco-friendly bison ranching to supply his Ted's Montana Grill chain of bison meat restaurants.

In fact, Turner amassed the largest privately owned bison herd on the planet, with a staggering 50,000 animals. Following his death, the exact legal distribution of his estate remains private, but it's believed his ranchland will remain protected from future development under the management of Turner Enterprises, rather than being divided up.

The third-largest private landowner in America, Liberty Media's John Malone owns a staggering 2.2 million acres. Malone surpassed fellow media mogul Ted Turner in 2011 to take the number-one spot, retaining his title until 2021, when he slipped in the rankings.

The tycoon, whose net worth is estimated at $11.3 billion, controls mammoth tracts of forested land in Florida, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Colorado. 

The Emmerson family runs Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), one of America's largest lumber, millwork, and biomass energy producers. All in all, the moneyed family owns more than 2.4 million acres of forested land. Most of it is in California, Oregon, and Washington, but the third-generation firm also has sawmills, window factories, and biomass-fueled power plants in several other states.

The Emmersons have been the largest landowners in America since 2021, but this year they've been knocked from the top spot...

Boasting a net worth of $27.6 billion, sports mogul and property magnate Stan Kroenke is now America's biggest landowner. The billionaire acquired the historic Waggoner Ranch in Texas for an estimated $725 million in 2016, and in 2025, he snapped up more than 937,000 acres of ranchland in New Mexico belonging to the heirs of Henry Singleton. The sale was the single-largest land purchase in America for over a decade.

Kroenke is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke, who's worth $14.1 billion. 

Now discover the richest Americans in every decade over the past 100 years