Land Report 100

Explore the 2024 Top 100 U.S. Landowners.

Presented by:

Land Report 100

Explore the 2024 Top 100
U.S. Landowners.

Presented by:

Land Report 100

Who is America’s
Largest Landowner?

This question is the quest of the Land Report 100 Research Team all year long.

In 2024, America’s largest landowner is Red Emmerson. Red and his family own 2,411,000 acres in California, Oregon, and Washington through their timber-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries. The Emmersons became America’s largest landowners in 2021 when they acquired 175,000 acres in Oregon from Seneca Timber Company. With that acquisition, the Emmersons surpassed Liberty Media chairman John Malone’s 2,200,000 acres. CNN founder Ted Turner is America’s third largest landowner with 2 million acres in the Southeast, on the Great Plains, and across the West.

The Land Report 100 Research Team analyzes transactions and scours records to determine America’s leading landowners. That’s how we broke the news in 2020 that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates was America’s largest farmland owner with more than 260,000 acres. That’s how we identified Shanda Investment Group founder Tianqiao Chen as the owner of almost 200,000 acres of Oregon timberland in 2024. It’s one of the many reasons why news organizations worldwide rely on the Magazine of the American Landowner to understand this asset class.

Since day one, the Land Report 100 has been recognized as the gold standard. The Wall Street Journal profiled our premiere survey, which ran in April 2007. The Washington Post did a deep dive on the enormous growth of the Land Report 100. No one has done a better job of illuminating the extent and reach of the Land Report 100 than Bloomberg , which crafted a remarkable interpretation of our painstaking research.

Invariably, I am asked about our sources. They range from county tax records to financial reports and corporate press releases. As the Voice of the American Landowner, we enjoy one final advantage — the trust and confidence of America’s leading landowners themselves. Whenever possible, we verify the figures cited in the Land Report 100 with landowners, their designated representatives, or their trusted advisors.

— Eric O’Keefe,
Editor, The Land Report

Top 100
Landowner List

A note from Steve Bruere:

Since 2007, this survey of America’s leading landowners has been the gold standard for private land ownership.

Each year we proudly host the reveal of the latest edition of the list at the Land Investment Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, and we look forward to highlighting these landowners all year long as the presenting sponsor of The Land Report 100.

For more than 50 years, Peoples Company has provided integrated land solutions across the country. We understand the challenges that landowners face in establishing, expanding, and enhancing their land holdings. It’s with great honor we congratulate the families that have built these legacy asset portfolios and understand the importance of managing one of the finest assets on earth, American Farmland.

Steve Bruere
President, Peoples Company

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Top 100
Landowner List

The Land Report 100 Research Team conducts an in-depth analysis of transactions and meticulously scours public and private records to identify and rank America’s leading landowners, ensuring the most accurate and comprehensive list available.

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