The United States is the third-largest country in the world by area, with approximately 2.43 billion acres of land. More than half – 1.3 billion acres – is privately owned. About 47% of those acres are mostly forest, with the rest being farms and ranches. The largest owners of that land don’t tend to vary much from year to year but more acres have been changing hands recently as heirs to legacy ranches and other large parcels choose to let them go. In December 2025, billionaire LA Rams owner Stanley Kroenke became America’s largest landowner after acquiring nearly 1 million acres of New Mexico ranchland from the heirs of Teledyne founder Henry Singleton. That addition brings Kroenke’s total US land holdings to 2.7 million acres, boosting him from the number 4 spot previously, according to “The Land Report’s” annual ranking of the country’s 100 largest private landowners. Kroenke took the top spot from the Emmerson family, which maintained the position for four years in a row with over 2.4 million acres. Among the top 10 landowners, 7 hold a total of 1 million acres or more, down from 9 last year. Below are the top 10 US private landowners in 2026 from The Land Report, which you can read in full HERE
10. Cullen Heirs own 800,000 acres. Hugh Roy Cullen (1881-1957) was born in North Texas but made his fortune in Houston. His initial success came from identifying salt domes in and around Harris County and then targeting the oil-rich sands below. Grandson Corbin Robertson Jr. transitioned the family away from oil and gas and into coal. Robertson oversees a portfolio of more than 13 million acres of mineral interests and subsurface rights at Quintana Minerals Corporation.
9. Pingree Heirs own 830,000 acres, which they inherited from David Pingree Sr. (1795–1863). Pingree made his fortune in shipping and enjoyed such enormous success that he was labeled “The Merchant Prince of Salem” in his day. Pingree sensed the demise of seafaring Salem, and he pursued a second career as a land baron. He acquired extensive holdings in New Hampshire, including much of Mount Washington, and in Maine, where his fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-generation heirs manage their timberlands via Bangor-based SEVEN ISLANDS LAND COMPANY.
8. King Ranch Heirs own 911,000 acres in South Texas. The King Ranch was started in the mid-19th century by Richard King, a young indentured jeweler who ran away and started a steamboat company in south Texas, according to the Ranch’s website. Over the course of over 160 years, King Ranch led some of the first cattle drives, developed the Santa Gertrudis and Santa Cruz breeds of cattle, bred Quarter Horses, and produced Champion Thoroughbreds. Created in 2003 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the founding of King Ranch, the land is now the KING RANCH INSTITUTE FOR RANCH MANAGEMENT at Texas A&M University – Kingsville focusing on educating the next generation of ranch managers.
7. The Irving Family owns 1,267,000 acres of land in the U.S., and even more in their native Canada. The Irving family land holdings originated with James Dergavel “J.D.” Irving, who founded a timber enterprise in Canada. Irving’s son K.C. acquired substantial landholdings in New Brunswick, Canada, as well as in neighboring Maine, where the family eventually became the Pine Tree State’s largest landowners. The Irvings operate their timberlands on 60-year rotations while harvesting less than 1.7 percent of their forested area each year.
6. The Buck Family owns approximately 1,320,000 acres in Maine.The company traces its fortune back to Dr. Peter Buck, a nuclear physicist who co-founded Subway. After Subway, Buck purchased 925,000 acres of timberland in Maine, adding to that over the years.
5. The Reed Family owns 1,615,000 acres of timberlandacross the West and more recently, the Southeast. The Reed family was established by patriarch Thomas M. Reed (1825–1905), a Washington pioneer and government official, and its success was greatly expanded by son Mark Edward Reed (1866–1933). In 1897, Reed, a failed logger was hired by Sol Simpson to manage the Simpson Logging Company, Simpson’s family-owned store, in the town of Shelton, Washington. Reed married Simpson’s daughter, Irene, in 1901. After Simpson died in 1906, Reed assumed control of Simpson Logging, which has since renamed itself Green Diamond Resource Co. 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.
4. Ted Turner, founder of CNN, owns 2,000,000 acres and the largest bison herd in the world.According to The Land Report, Turner’s two dozen properties, which include 13 ranches, are equivalent in size to Yellowstone National Park. Turner is the largest private landowner in both Nebraska and New Mexico, in addition to owning land in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, and South Dakota. Mr. Turner purchased his first bison in 1976 and his first ranch (The Bar None in Montana) in 1987. The Turner bison herd, which is now the largest private herd in the world, totals some 45,000 head. All of the Turner ranches feature one or more of the following: bison ranching, commercial hunting or fishing and limited sustainable timber harvesting.
3. John Malone owns 2,200,000 acres.This billionaire businessman and philanthropist was the CEO of Tele-Communications Inc. for 24 years and is now the chairman of Liberty Media, which has ownership stakes in Formula One, SiriusXM, and the Atlanta Braves baseball team. According to The Land Report, Malone works to maintain historical structures and traditions on his properties. Malone’s land holdings are part of his Silver Spur Ranches, a ranching and beef company which includes the Silver Spur Ranch in Encampment, Wyoming, Bell Ranch and the TO Ranch in New Mexico, Bridlewood Farm, a thoroughbred breeding, training and racing operation in Ocala, Florida; as well as ranches in Walden, Colorado, and Kiowa, Colorado. Malone held the top spot as America’s largest landowner for 10 years, before losing the title to the Emmerson family in 2021.
2. The Emmerson Family and their Sierra Pacific Industries owns 2,440,000 acres,and is ranked the largest private timberland owner in the nation. Founded by Archie Aldis “Red” Emmerson and his son Curly in 1949, Sierra Pacific today is a third-generation, family-owned forest products company based in Anderson, California. The family’s holdings are focused in the Western states of California, Oregon, and Washington. SPI went public in 1969 but four years later Red and Curly bought out their partner and took it private. Over the next quarter-century, Red would acquire more than 1 million acres of California timberland, including 525,000 acres in a single $465 million transaction from the Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation in 1988. Sierra Pacific Industries today is one of the largest privately owned U.S. forest products companies. It is also among the largest U.S. lumber manufacturers and wood window producers.
1. Stanley Kroenke’s 2,700,000 acres make him the top land owner in the US. In December, Kroenke completed the single-largest land purchase in the US in more than a decade — more than 937,000 deeded acres of ranchland in New Mexico belonging to the heirs of Teledyne founder Henry Singleton, according to The Land Report. That is just shy of the largest private US land sale of this century, which was John Malone’s purchase of 1 million acres of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire from GMO Renewables in 2011, per The Land Report. Kroenke, a real estate developer, is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton. He also owns several sports teams, including the Los Angeles Rams of the NFL, Denver Nuggets of the NBA, Colorado Avalanche of the NHL. The American sports tycoon and his Walmart has built his land empire fairly quickly by acquiring several large legacy ranches. In Wyoming, he owns the largest single ranch in the Rocky Mountains, the 560,000-acre Q Creek Ranch. In Montana, Kroenke acquired the 124,000-acre Broken O Ranch in 2012 from the heirs of Bill Moore, the founder of the nation’s largest privately owned paint company. He scooped up the United States’ largest ranch, the Waggoner Ranch in Texas on 535,000 acres, in 2016. And in 2019, Kroenke bought Nevada’s Winecup Gamble Ranch from former Reebok International chairman Paul Fireman. According to listing broker C. Patrick Bates of Bates Land Consortium, the Winecup Gamble’s 247,500 deeded acres and 558,080 acres of leased federal land combined to make it one of the most historic large-scale ranches in the nation.
