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THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN LANDOWNER $15

SPECIAL REPORT

LARGEST LANDOWNERS IN THE UNITED STATES

A NEW DAY DAWNS ON THE WAGGONER Iconic Ranch Hits the Market For $725 Million

As they have for well over a century, cowboys call No. 14 it a night under the stars on the . Photography © Wyman Meinzer

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LARGEST

USA

LANDOWNERS

Giant timber tracts, endless fields of grain, larger-than-life ranches, these are a few of the ways America’s largest landowners make the most of one of our essential freedoms. — The Editors

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Left: In 2010, Malone acquired ’s historic Bell Ranch.

ohn Malone blames his sprawling landholdings on his good friend and fellow cable entrepreneur Ted Turner. J(See the mustachioed fellow on the opposite page.) The Yale graduate and his wife, Leslie, live in the Denver area not far from their Silver Spur Ranches, which are located John Malone in , , , and New Mexico. 2,200,000 acres Though Silver Spur has numerous divisions, its largest holdings are in the Land of Enchantment: the 220,000-acre TO Ranch, which is located in Northern New Mexico near Raton; and the historic 290,100-acre Bell Ranch outside of Tucumcari. 1 The history of the TO, which was founded in 1864 by Antoine “Tony” Meloche, is a story in itself. But the Bell is in a league of its own, a Mexican land grant that dates back to 1824. Read about Malone’s acquisition of the Bell online at www.LandReport.com or in the Fall 2010 issue of The Land Report.

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n the summer of 1995, Ted Turner visited Yellowstone National Park, Ian important setting for endangered species. During this visit, he ruminated on a single question: Could private land provide security for imperiled species? Two years later, in the summer of 1997, the Turner family launched the Turner Endangered Species Fund (TESF) and Turner Biodiversity Divisions to promote the persistence of at-risk species with an emphasis on private land. Since then, both entities have been involved in numerous successful restoration projects for imperiled plants, birds, fishes, mammals, and amphibians. The accomplishments of both TESF and Turner Biodiversity Divisions prove that private land offers numerous opportuni- ties for landowners to play a huge role in preventing species from vanishing. By way of his conservation initiatives, Turner has illustrated that endangered species restoration on private land is an TURNER ENTERPRISES INC. TURNER ENTERPRISES important part of any potential solution Top: Rhett Turner, Teddy Turner, Laura Turner Seydel, Beau Turner, Ted Turner, and to the extinction crisis. In doing so, he Jennie Turner Garlington serve as trustees for the Turner Foundation and Turner has reminded us all of the wondrous Endangered Species Fund, which are dedicated to environmental issues, including diversity of life on Earth and our undeniable capacity to restore it. biodiversity preservation and restoration of imperiled species. Bottom: Turner’s Nonami Plantation in includes ideal habitat for several imperiled species, including the gopher tortoise.

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Above: Based in , the family’s Sierra Pacific ierra Pacific Industries (SPI) was Industries is the second-largest lumber producer in the U.S. founded in 1949 by Curly Emmerson Sand his son Red. The company has been owned and operated by the family ever since. Currently, SPI is spearheading a significant conservation project at Lake Tahoe near the Northstar ski area. The company is going to forgo development rights on nearly 6,400 acres of land. Instead, it plans to convert those 10 square miles 3 into open space and contribute them to a 50,000-acre block of undeveloped land between Lake Tahoe and Truckee. The project offers a tremendous opportunity Emmerson Family to preserve a vast amount of open space 1,860,000 acres and is now in the public review stage.

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Brad Kelley 1,500,000+ acres down 17,351 acres

o matter how hard he tries, this native can’t Nstop generating headlines. Last year, the business press took note when he acquired the Lonely Planet guidebook series from the BBC. Next, Kelley was front and center in the sports section when his Thoroughbred Oxbow won the Preakness Stakes with Gary Stevens up. This August, the State of Texas announced the purchase of the 17,351-acre Powderhorn Ranch on Matagorda Bay. Said Texas Parks and Wildlife Executive Director Carter Smith, “It’s a magical place.” Smith noted the seller accepted a below-market price to ensure “a conservation-related outcome,” but would not name names. But Above: In August, Kelley’s The Dallas Morning News did. Powderhorn Ranch became Thank you, Brad Kelley. the largest conservation investment in Texas history.

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top the presses! As the 2014 Land Report 100 was being finalized, Sthe Reed family’s Green Diamond Resource Company announced that it had closed on 600,000 acres of timber- Above: Each year, land belonging to the estate of Richard Green Diamond “Dick” Wendt, founder of JELD-WEN harvests less than 2 Windows & Doors. Green Diamond is percent of its lands. one of the oldest continuously operating 5 Below: CEO Doug forest products companies in the Pacific Northwest and can trace its roots back Reed is adamant to 1890. Five generations later, Green about his family’s Reed Family Diamond and Simpson Investment 1,370,000 acres Company own and manage forests in commitment to up 600,000 acres , Oregon, and California. sustainable forestry.

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ecognized as one of the wealthiest families in Canada, the Irvings run Ra diverse series of enterprises from their headquarters in New Brunswick. According to The Wall Street Journal, the family refines 320,000 barrels of oil a day and supplies almost one-fifth of U.S. oil product imports. Through Brunswick News Inc., the Irvings publish all three of 6 New Brunswick’s daily English newspapers. And the Irvings are the largest landowners in the Pine Tree State. Irving Woodlands oversees the family’s timber holdings, Irving Family which include 1.25 million acres in 1,250,000 acres and 2 million more in Canada.

Above: The Irvings own nearly 1.25 million acres in the U.S., but nearly double that in Canada.

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Singleton Family 1,100,00 acres

amily patriarch Henry Singleton (1916-1999), Fcofounded the indus- trial conglomerate Teledyne with George Kozmetsky in 1960. Twenty-five years later, he bought the San Cristobal Ranch in New Mexico’s Galisteo Basin just south of Santa Fe. More than two dozen acquisitions later, Singleton Ranches totaled 1.1 million acres of deeded land. In addition to the family’s New Mexico holdings, the Singleton heirs own and operate several properties in California, including the Peachtree and Top Ranches in the Salinas Valley and the River Island Ranch at the foothills of the Sierra Mountains.

Right: In 2012, the American Quarter Horse Association honored Singleton Ranches with its Best Remuda Award. CONNIE JO MITCHELL CONNIE

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KING RANCH INC Above: The Main House on the Santa Gertrudis Division celebrates its centennial in 2015.

n 2014, King Ranch Inc. marked its 161st year of continuous operations. While remaining true to the iconic ranching her- Iitage begun by Captain Richard King so long ago, King Ranch 8 has continued to prosper due to a broad diversification and growth into other land-based, agricultural production-focused businesses. King Ranch will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Main House on the Santa Gertrudis Division in 2015. The Main House replaced King Ranch Heirs the two-story wooden homestead that burned to the ground in 911,215 acres 1912. Mrs. King's grand new Mission-style home served as the family residence and ranch headquarters. To this day, the Main House remains the primary family residence on King Ranch and stands as a tribute to seven generations of private ownership. The Main House and Ranch have been designated as a National Historic Landmark by the Interior Department and a Texas Historical Monument by the State of Texas.

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Stan Kroenke 848,631 acres up 60 acres

In addition to his landholdings and several sports franchises, Kroenke also owns the Napa Valley cult cabernet Screaming Eagle. arlier this year, media outlets across the country keyed in on Kroenke’s acquisition of a not-so-insignificant 60-acre Etract. Part of the reason was because the land was in Los Angeles. Another part was because L.A. is the largest media market in the country without an NFL franchise. The last part is the clincher: Guess who owns the St. Louis Rams, a team that was based in Southern California from 1946 to 1994? To top it off, in all likelihood, the team’s lease will expire at the end of this season. The native has a decided penchant for top franchises. In November 2012, he added ’s 124,000-acre Broken O Ranch to his holdings, which already included the largest contiguous ranch in the Rocky Mountains, Wyoming’s 540,000-acre Q Creek Ranch. STAN KROENKE PHOTOGRAPHY REUTERS/RICK WILKING REUTERS/RICK PHOTOGRAPHY KROENKE STAN

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Above: Approximately 80 percent of the Pingree holdings are under conservation easement.

n the mid-19th century, David Pingree, a shipping magnate known as the Merchant Prince of Salem, Isensed that the heyday of the clipper ship was coming to an end. So he began purchasing land — and he did so in nearly 100 different Maine townships. Today, his heirs’ Seven Islands Land Co. is FSC and SFI certified. In 2012, Seven Islands acquired MooseWood Millworks, which manufactures products from flooring-grade lumber produced at the family’s Maine Woods Company. 10 Now Pingree hardwood, from a 170-year sustainably managed forest, is available as MooseWood Flooring.

Pingree Heirs 830,000 acres

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| Briscoe Family No. 11 13 560,000 acres No. 18 During the Texas Revolution, Andrew Briscoe served as a captain at the Battle of San Jacinto. His descendants have been similarly distinguished. Cattle rancher Dolph Briscoe Sr. (1890-1954) fueled the family’s fondness for land. His son, two- term Texas governor Dolph Jr. (1923-2010), grew the family’s holdings along with its ranching operations, which are based outside of Uvalde and spread out over nine Texas counties.

W.T. Waggoner Estate 14| 535,000 acres Dan Waggoner (1828-1902) established the Waggoner Ranch in 1849. His son, W.T. Kenneth Ford (1852-1934), expanded it even more. Today, Jack Simplot the W.T. Waggoner Ranch is managed by co- directors A.B. “Buck” Wharton and Gene Willingham. The two oversee the massive | Ford Family cattle operation, a horse breeding program, | Drummond Family 11 625,000 acres crop production, and more. For a more in- 17 433,000 acres In the 1930s, Kenneth Ford (1908-1997) depth look at this historic holding, which has The Drummonds helped write ranching started out with a single sawmill near just come to market, read Henry Chappell’s history in , and there’s plenty of Roseburg, Oregon. He bought timberlands “The Bold Brand,” which starts on page 72. story left to tell. The patriarch emigrated that had been repossessed for non-payment from Scotland as a teen and married of taxes. When the post-World War II hous- O’Connor Heirs native Addie Gentner. All three of their sons ing boom hit, Roseburg Forest Products was 15| 500,000 acres became successful cattle ranchers, and their poised to expand. Today, the company makes In 1887, Dennis O’Connor (1839-1900) descendants still manage thousands of acres engineered wood products, lumber, plywood, inherited his father’s ranching operation. in Oklahoma and Kansas. and particle board. Second-generation CEO At the time, the O’Connor Ranch ranked Allyn Ford oversees timberlands in Western as the largest land holding in Texas. It | Simplot Family Oregon and Northern California, along with sprawled across six coastal counties, 18 422,500 acres manufacturing plants around the nation. numbered more than half a million Jack Simplot (1909-2008) created the first acres, ran 100,000 head of cattle, commercially viable frozen French fries in Lykes Heirs and was valued at $4.5 million. the 1940s. His family’s agribusiness has 12| 615,000 acres plants in Australia, China, New Zealand, In 1870, Dr. Howell Lykes opted to forsake and North America, including 15 ranches a career in medicine. Instead, he took over 16| 434,500 acres in , , Oregon, and , and his family’s 500-acre farm in ’s Denver-based Anschutz made his first more than 30 irrigated farms in Idaho, Hernando County where he raised citrus fortune in oil, railroads, and telecom. His Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. and cattle. In 1900, Lykes and his seven second he made with Anschutz Entertain- sons incorporated Lykes Bros. Inc. More ment Group (AEG). His landholdings | Holding Family than a century later, the family is still include the Overland Trail Cattle Company 19 400,000 acres involved in citrus and cattle. It has also in Carbon County, Wyoming, which clocks Robert Earl Holding (1926-2013) owned expanded operations to include forestry, in at 320,000 acres. Recently, the Overland ranches, Sinclair Oil, ski resorts in Idaho sugar cane, insurance, and other endeavors. was recognized by the Bureau of Land (Sun Valley) and Utah (Snowbasin), and Lykes Bros. added 275,000 acres to its Management for its investments in range Salt Lake City’s Grand America Hotel. The holdings when the company bought the o2 and water improvements, especially as it basis of his fortune? A 12-room Wyoming Ranch south of Alpine in Far West Texas. relates to grazing management practice. truck stop called Little America.

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Texas’s Wilks brothers are adamant that they plan to continue running Montana’s N Bar, which they acquired in 2011, as a cattle ranch.

KENTON ROWE | Hughes Family total more than 311,000 acres, mostly in | Nunley Brothers 20 390,000 acres up 17,000 acres the eastern part of the state. According to 24 301,500 acres This family has eight decades’ worth of oil Forbes.com, they acquired an additional Legendary Texas cattleman Red Nunley and gas know-how and success, and they’ve 36,000 acres in Idaho. The Wilks launched took up ranching more than seven decades invested a portion of those profits in land. a website, MontanaPublicAccess.com, to ago and partnered with other landowners to Recent purchases in Montana, Wyoming, dispel rumors about their plans for the improve breeding techniques. Today, Nunley and Texas upped their total acreage by 17,000 62,000-acre N Bar Ranch, which they Brothers Ranches is owned and managed by acres. The majority of land is used for cattle bought in 2011: “Simply said, the Wilkses Red’s grandsons, Richard and Bob. They ranching, grazing, and hunting leases. are interested in reestablishing a premier run cattle on ranches spanning from South Black Angus ranch at the N-Bar.” Texas to the Texas Hill Country and across | Malone Mitchell 3rd the Trans-Pecos to Alpine. 21 384,000 acres | Collins Family One of this energy entrepreneur’s smartest 23 310,472 acres moves? Selling a redeveloped South Texas oil Before his death, Truman Doud Collins 25| 290,000 acres field to Chevron in 1994. That set the stage pieced together a profitable collection of Last December, Bezos’s private aerospace for several of his West Texas acquisitions, timber forests, manufacturing plants, firm announced it had successfully including the mineral-rich Pinion Field. railroads, and -based sawmills. test-fired a rocket engine at its Far West The family takes particular pride in its Son Everell Collins relocated the forest- Texas launch facility, located on Bezos’s 350,000-acre Longfellow Ranch, a product company headquarters to Portland 290,000-acre Corn Ranch. mecca for deer and elk hunters. and purchased even more forestland along the way: in California, Washington, and | Collier Family | Wilks Brothers Oregon. The family’s firm was an early 26 280,000 acres 22 347,500 acres up 36,000 acres adopter of biodiversity and sustainability For more than a century, the Colliers have The two Texans have been steadily adding practices put forth by the U.S. Forest had a hand in shaping Southwest Florida. to their Montana holdings, which now Stewardship Council. Under the leadership of the late Barron

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No. 32

D.R. Horton’s purchase of the Great Western Ranch from No. 76 Patrick Broe vaulted him onto the Land Report 100.

Collier, the family once owned more than great-grandfather, Samuel “Burk” Burnett, owned by the Abell family of Austin, and 1 million acres in the Sunshine State. Total founded the ranch in 1868. Numerous ru- is managed by Hughes Abell, founder and acreage has dropped, but the descendants’ mors have sprung up about the 6666 brand, general partner. Its farm and ranch holdings holdings and their respective companies including a tale about a winning poker hand. span Texas, New Mexico, and Florida. have grown to include everything from The truth is the pioneering rancher bought oil production and agriculture to mineral 100 head of cattle from Frank Crowley, and Mike Smith management and real estate development. every one of them wore the 6666 brand. 31| 263,066 Acres Mike Smith has amassed significant Kokernot Heirs Babbitt Heirs holdings in the Texas Panhandle and Eastern 27| 278,000 acres 29| 270,000 acres New Mexico. The majority of his acreage Among the most storied ranches in Far In 1886, five Babbitt brothers arrived in is farmland and grassland. Smith, who is West Texas, the o6 brand was registered Flagstaff from Cincinnati and began one of based in Amarillo, also has holdings as early as 1837. It was purchased by John the most storied livestock operations in the between Dallas and Waco. Kokernot in 1872, who, with his brother Southwest. Babbitt Ranches cattle graze on Lee, began grazing cattle on open range private and public lands with views of the D.R. Horton west of the Pecos. In 1912, Lee’s son, Herbert Painted Desert in one direction and the 32| 262,805 acres up 176,805 acres Lee Sr. (1867-1949), began to piece together Grand Canyon’s North Rim in the other. This summer, the Texas homebuilder the immense property now known as the Quarter Horse aficionados pay particular added the Great Western Ranch to his o6 and the Leoncita Cattle Company. attention to the family’s annual colt sale, holdings, which include Camp Horton, an which is overseen by fourth-generation 86,000-acre ranch in West Texas. At press Anne Marion family member Bill Cordasco. time, the Media Relations Department at 28| 275,000 acres DR Horton, Inc., had not responded to an The only daughter of “Miss Anne,” Ms. Llano Partners email request about specific ownership Marion is president of Burnett Ranches, 30| 265,000 acres details. Jeff Buerger of Hall and Hall had which owns the Four Sixes Ranches. Her Llano is a Texas-based family partnership the listing on the Great Western.

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Conservation philanthropist Louis Bacon received the Land Trust Alliance’s President’s Award for Conservation Leadership in Providence on Sept. 18.

Lyda Family are based in Laredo, Texas. Killam earned a Ranch, which straddles the Wyoming-South 33| 260,035 acres degree in ranch management from Texas Dakota border, and the VR Ranch, which The Lydas’ La Escalera Ranches are both in Christian University. Last year, the Killams was established in the late 1800s. Texas and include 229,635 acres near Fort purchased the Dana Ranch, a stunning Stockton and 30,400 contiguous acres 60,000-acre property situated along the Reynolds Family northwest of Fort Worth. Recent studies Missouri River in the geographic heart 37| 250,000 acres indicate vast quantities of fresh water below of Montana near Great Falls. Assembled In the years following the Civil War, the the former in the Capitan Reef Aquifer. La almost a century ago by Edwin Dana, “the Reynoldses began ranching along the Clear Escalera is also known as a wildlife haven cattle king of the Northwest,” the ranch Fork of the Brazos River near the frontier for desert mule deer, pronghorn antelope, boasted the largest purebred herd of outpost of Fort Griffin, Texas. Brothers elk, Rio Grande turkey, and blue quail. Hereford cattle in the U.S. during Dana’s George Thomas and William David ownership tenure. Lacking an heir, Dana Reynolds registered the Long X brand, | Jones Family turned the ranch over to John Cameron, a and the two began running their herds 34 255,000 acres trusted friend and confidante, whose family as far west as the Davis Mountains and as The Jones family found early success with stewarded it until 2013. far north as Wyoming, Utah, Montana, cattle ranching and real estate along the Nebraska, the Dakotas, and Canada. Texas coast. Today, A.C. Jones IV manages | True Family Thanks to their success, they were able to the family’s holdings, most of which are 34 255,000 acres establish a base of operations on ranches in located near Corpus Christi. They include Since the 1950s, the True family’s business Haskell, Shackelford, and Throckmorton the Alta Vista Ranch, the Alta Colorado holdings have been closely linked to success- Counties. In 1884, they incorporated at the Ranch, and the Borregos Ranch. ful oil-field development and production in First National Bank in Albany. In 1895, they Wyoming. The family’s ranch holdings are acquired 232,000 acres in Jeff Davis County | Killam Family equally impressive: True Ranches includes on which they established the Long X Ranch. 34 255,000 acres seven productive properties, two farms, and The brothers’ heirs own ranches in Texas, David Killam is the third-generation CEO of feedlots. Some of the ranches are dyed-in- New Mexico, , Montana, and the family-owned Killam Companies, which the-wool Western icons, such as the LAK .

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Paul Fireman Scott Family 38| 247,000 acres 43| 220,000 acres Dreaming big has never been a challenge Homer Scott was fresh out of engineering for Fireman. The former chairman of Reebok school when he was sent westward in 1935 owns Nevada’s Winecup-Gamble Ranch, to open new territory for his then-employer. one of the largest ranches in the American The rangelands agreed with him, and in 1943 West. Fireman also built Liberty National he bought the 3,000-acre Padlock Ranch Golf Course in Jersey City. in Wyoming to graze Hereford cows. The Padlock is still family owned, but its | D.K. Boyd borders have grown into neighboring 39 244,332 acres up 3 acres Montana where the family runs more This rancher, oilman, and West Texas native than 10,000 cattle on a mixture of private upped his tally by three acres last year. His and leased land located on or near the holdings include the 137,372-acre Frying Crow Indian Reservation. Pan Ranch and the 106,065-acre LE Ranch, two of the most historically significant cattle Louis Bacon operations on the South Plains. | 218,331 acres (U.S.) up 2,620 acres 44 210,678 acres (conservation acreage) Koch Family Bacon’s longtime advocacy of landscape and 40| 239,000 acres wildlife conservation recently earned him Koch Industries is a multinational enterprise the Land Trust Alliance President’s Award whose holdings include Koch Pipeline, Koch for Conservation on Sept. 18. The award Fertilizer, and Koch Minerals. The family’s honors “an individual whose leadership has ranch holdings date back to 1952, when enriched the land conservation movement Fred Koch founded Matador Cattle Co., and whose contributions encourage commit- which operates in Texas and Montana. ment and action throughout the land trust community and private landowner commu- Benjy Griffith III nity.” In presenting the award, Land Trust 41| 225,000 acres Alliance President Rand Wentworth said, Griffith’s Southern Pine Plantations owns “Mr. Bacon’s bold actions are inspiring other timberland primarily in the South and landowners to protect and steward their Southeast. But in 2014, it was his Montana lands, encouraging them to protect America’s ranch that made news. According to The natural heritage to create a lasting legacy for Wall Street Journal, Griffith is marketing his generations to come.” Previous recipients Willow Creek Ranch for $22.5 million, “or of the President’s Award for Conservation roughly $5.5 million less than he paid for it Leadership include the Colorado Coalition in 2007.” Joel Leadbetter of Hall and Hall has of Land Trusts in 2007, Jim Lentowski of the listing on the 19,419-acre (18,139 deeded) the Nantucket Conservation Foundation property just outside Livingston. in 2010, and David Beaver of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Bidegain Family Land Management in 2012. 41| 225,000 acres The T4 Cattle Company, a family-owned East Wildlife Foundation and -operated cattle ranch in Eastern New 45| 215,000 acres Mexico, has outlasted blizzards, fires, and Robert East was South Texas ranching recessions. Third-generation operator Philip royalty. His estate established the nonprofit Bidegain and his family are currently in East Wildlife Foundation, which operates another tough spot as they battle a lengthy six ranches in Jim Hogg, Starr, Willacy, drought that has crippled other operators. and Kenedy Counties. All lands are used (See No. 95 Richard Evans.) Their cow-calf as working cattle ranches as well as operation recently added two neighboring living laboratories for accomplishing ranches and stretches across three counties. East’s research and educational goals.

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Above: According to Steve Hearst, “regardless of where any family member lives in the world, whenever they drive through the gates at San Simeon, they all think they’re home.”

edia magnate William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) made history with his newspaper publishing empire, but it was his father, George Hearst M(1820-1891), who built the family fortune. And it all began with land. 46 (See Henry Chappell’s profile of Hearst Ranch in the Summer 2014 issue of The Land Report.) The elder Hearst was a Missouri native who ventured to California as a 49er. A decade later, he and his partners hit pay dirt with the Comstock Lode, the biggest silver rush in American history. Hearst parlayed this success into sundry other mining interests, including ’s Homestake gold mine and Montana’s Anaconda copper mine. He also bought 48,000 acres of ranchland near the tiny town of San Simeon in Central California. He eventually expanded that initial purchase to 270,000 acres. Today, the family’s rural landholdings in California include the 80,000-acre Piedra Blanca Rancho at San Simeon, the 73,000-acre Jack Ranch near Cholame, and 61,000 acres of timberland in Northern California.

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The historic Hoodoo Ranch is located between Yellowstone National Park and Cody, Wyoming.

Gage Heirs Eugene Gabrych Bogle Family 47| 213,730 acres 49| 200,000 acres 51| 192,000 acres Big Bend cattle baron Alfred S. Gage spent Gabrych is a California businessman who native Hal Bogle left the decades building his Far West Texas cattle takes land investment very seriously. He and Volunteer State for health reasons in 1917. kingdom. At its height, the A.S. Gage Ranch his family own many noteworthy farms and He settled in Southern New Mexico where encompassed more than a half a million ranches throughout the Golden State and he ended up building a ranching empire. In acres. Today, visitors to the Big Bend can Nevada. Take Gabrych’s 18,200-acre Rock the decades since his death, Bogle’s heirs wine and dine or even spend the night at Springs Ranch near King City, north of Los have continued his legacy, including the his headquarters. Gage commissioned El Angeles. Rock Springs is one of the premier development of a much-lauded Quarter Paso architect Henry Trost to design what hunting cattle ranches in the San Joaquin Horse program. Bogle Ltd. now consists of is now one of the Trans-Pecos’s favorite get- Valley. To this day, it is unspoiled by man three separate farms, a farming operation, aways, the Gage Hotel (www.gagehotel.com). and machine. and a feedlot. Cassidy Heirs | Langdale Family Hunt Family 48| 212,985 acres 49 200,000 acres 52| 190,000 acres After emigrating from Nova Scotia to The family’s success in the timber industry The history of Hunt Oil Company dates Maine, John Cassidy accumulated a fortune dates back to the 1890s, when John W. Lang- back to a starry night in 1934. Although H.L. in timberlands, mills, and other real estate. dale began harvesting turpentine and rosin Hunt initially focused on the East Texas His son, J.W., inherited those original timber from Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp. Oilfield, his son Ray and his family now 200,000 acres and continued to manage Today, Langdale Company is still focused on own and operate farms, ranches, and and expand the family holdings. The plan forestry management and forest products. other landholdings in Arizona, Montana, worked: Cassidy Timberlands is still among The third-generation owners stay true to the New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming the nation’s most successful Maine and company mission by maintaining sustainable through their family-owned Hoodoo Land Florida timber management firms. practices. and Cattle Company.

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Considered one of the most spectacular properties in the Rocky Mountains, Bob Funk’s UU Bar Ranch features alpine meadows that reach to the heavens. GUSTAV SCHMIEGE III SCHMIEGE GUSTAV

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Williams Family Irwin Heirs 53| 181,000 acres 58| 170,000 acres The Pitchfork Land & Cattle Company’s Horses with the RO brand — bred at the home ranch outside the West Texas town historic Arizona-based O RO Ranch — were of Guthrie marks its livestock with a telltale among the first registered by the AQHA. trident. The Pitchfork Gray, a sturdy ranch John Irwin II purchased the O RO in 1973 horse, is another icon found on the ranch. from the Greene Cattle Company. His son, The Pitchfork is still operated by descendants John Irwin III, still runs the ranch as a cattle of Eugene Williams of St. Louis. operation under the JJJ Corporation moniker.

Robert A. Funk Sr. Sugg Family 54| 175,000 acres 59| 166,655 acres Express Employment Professionals Chairman Established in West Texas, the 7D Ranch Bob Funk knows how to have a good time, be was already well known when the San it four-wheeling on his UU Bar Ranch in Angelo-based Sugg family acquired it. Northern New Mexico or hosting a steak Brothers Cal Sugg Jr. and Joel Sugg still run dinner for 1,800 guests at his Yukon home. cattle operations the way their parents did, (Turn to pages 30-31 for a closer look at his with cowhands and drift fences. Big Event.) The gregarious Oklahoman was the subject of a cover story, “Trail Boss,” in Fasken Family the Fall 2011 issue of The Land Report. 60| 165,000 acres Canadian David Fasken bought right when | McCoy & Remme Families he acquired the C Ranch from the estate of a 55 174,300 acres Chicago meat packer. Fasken’s son, Robert, The March 2014 sale of the historic 55,709- moved to Midland to help oversee ranch acre Rockpile Ranch in the Davis Mountains management. Then oil was discovered. of Far West Texas resulted in a decreased To this day, Fasken Oil & Ranch still tally for this extended Texas family, which owns the land on which it drills. traces its ranching heritage back to Emmett McCoy, founder of McCoy’s Building Supply. Mike Mechenbier 61| 163,800 acres Russell Gordy This cowboy philanthropist’s New Mexico 56| 170,129 acres holdings include the Four Daughters Ranch, Texas energy investor Russell Gordy earned the Dockery-Collins, the Pie Ranch, and the his fortune on smart buys and good timing. Loveless-Romero. Mechenbier also manages Many would say he’s been equally smart 2,000 acres in the Middle Rio Grande Valley about his land investments. Gordy owns and operates two cattle feedlots. large properties in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming, Cogdell Family including Falls Ranch north of Casper. 62| 160,000 acres The descendants of D.M. Cogdell continue | Broadbent Family their family’s Texas Panhandle ranching 57 170,000 acres legacy. Holdings include the Tule Ranch, A yearling cattle and sheep operation with a cow-calf and Quarter Horse operator in headquarters in Evanston, the Broadbent Armstrong and Briscoe Counties. Ranch is one of Wyoming’s largest and most diversified outfits. With land in California Fanjul Family and Utah, the Broadbents raise Rambouillet 62| 160,000 acres for their in-demand wool. The family The family’s Florida Crystals Corporation is a suffered the tragic loss of Joe Broadbent, 74, leading domestic sugar producer and the first late last year in a traffic accident in Utah’s and only producer of certified organic sugar Provo Canyon. grown and harvested in the U.S. The Fanjuls

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No. 64 Monte Ritchie on his family’s JA Ranch. COURTESY OF JA RANCH. OF JA COURTESY

have been longtime supporters of Everglades Historical Association, when Richardson restoration. Pepe Fanjul Jr. manages the was still in high school in his hometown of company’s land assets. Athens, he netted $3,500 trading cattle. At his peak, his holdings included production JA Ranch Heirs in the Keystone Field in West Texas and the 64| 158,500 Acres Eola Field in . He also owned (and Founded in 1876 through a partnership loved) St. Joseph’s Island, a 17-mile-long, between Irish businessman John Adair, five-mile-wide sanctuary off the Gulf Coast Cornelia Adair, and Charles Goodnight, of Texas. Richardson hunted on St. Joseph’s, the JA is the oldest continuously operated welcomed friends and family to his island, family cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle. and ran some 2,000 head of cattle there as Today, operations are overseen by fifth-gen- well. He died on St. Joseph’s in 1959. His eration family member Andrew Bivins, who four great-nephews — Bob, Ed, Lee, and uses GPS technology to manage the sizable Sid Bass of Fort Worth — enjoy similar ranch. The JA’s pioneering efforts earned a ties to the land. 2013 Lone Star Land Steward Award from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Emily Garvey Bonavia 66| 150,000 acres | Ellison Family This heiress of the family who started 65 152,000 acres Nevada First Corporation inherited her In the 1930s, Stanley and Mae Ellison came father’s cattle and farming operation. Mrs. to Elko County, Nevada, to manage their Bonavia still runs the company, which has family’s ranching company. The Ellisons expanded into ranching and timber opera- bought and sold many properties, including tions in Nevada and Oregon. the 1995 purchase of the 36,000-acre 71 Ranch. Boswell Family 66| 150,000 acres | Bass Family J.G. Boswell Co. is the largest cotton grower 66 150,000 acres in the U.S. The company mills and sells Pima Family patriarch Sid Richardson was a peer- cotton to textile makers worldwide and less wildcatter. According to the Texas State manufactures cotton byproducts.

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David Murdock owned Lanai from 1985 to 2012, when he sold it to

Auscott, its Australian subsidiary, is a also recognized for its award-winning brood- going by making sizable donations of land major grower and marketer of Australian mare band. in the Missouri Ozark Highlands. Today, cotton. J.G. Boswell is also a grower and the L-A-D Foundation owns significant supplier of tomatoes and operates real | David Murdock tracts in Southeast Missouri. Most recently, estate development companies. 71 149,702 acres it negotiated a small but critical addition to The 91-year-old Dole Food CEO has built its Ball Mill Resurgence tract along Blue | Eddy Family a fortune, and not just by selling pineapples. Spring Branch, which provides protection 66 150,000 acres Murdock’s privately held Castle & Cooke is of the streamside and bottomlands along The family owns Port Blakely Companies, heavily invested in real estate development the stream’s banks. L-A-D is now working which is focused on forest and forest prod- in and California. with the Mark Twain National Forest to ucts. Founded in 1864, the firm celebrates preserve the resources of the valley. its sesquicentennial this year. Based in the | Wells Family Pacific Northwest, holdings include Pacific 72 149,000 Acres Gerald J. Ford Lumber and Shipping and Port Blakely Tree Established just prior to the turn of the 20th 74| 144,580 acres Farms, in Washington and Oregon. The century by Thomas Wells, the family’s Rush The chairman of Dallas-based Hilltop family has a tradition of opening its private Creek Land & Livestock stretches out over Holdings, Ford owns Rio Hondo Land & forestlands to the public for recreation. eight counties in Nebraska. It’s still run as a Cattle Co., New Mexico-based Diamond working cow-calf operation. The family also A Ranch, and Kentucky’s Diamond A Farm. | Green Heirs raises alfalfa and grass hay for feed and runs Ford’s runner Pleasantly Perfect won the 66 150,000 acres a commercial hunting program. 2003 Breeders’ Cup Classic and the 2004 Three generations of Greens maintain a Dubai World Cup and retired as the ranching legacy that defines life around L-A-D Foundation fourth-winningest runner with $7,789,880. Albany, Texas. Today, grandson Billy Green 73| 146,000 Acres Pleasantly Perfect now stands at Lane’s End runs Hereford, Angus, and Black Baldies. In 1962, St. Louis businessman Leo Drey and is the sire of Rapid Redux, winner of a Green Ranch’s Quarter Horse program is organized the foundation and got things record 22 straight races.

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Cash wheat was the original driver behind Stefan Soloviev’s foray into land. SHUTTERSTOCK

Stefan Soloviev Harrison Family Don Oppliger 75| 141,700 acres 77| 140,000 acres 77| 140,00 acres new to LR100 Soloviev’s Crossroads Agriculture, which Almost a century ago, Dan Harrison Based in Amarillo, The Oppliger Companies he established in 1999, was originally set up partnered with legendary Houston oilman are a diversified agribusiness operation to produce, purchase, and store cash wheat Jim Abercrombie. Working in tandem, that operates in Texas, New Mexico, and in the Wichita area. Soloviev subsequently the two ended up discovering Texas’s Old Nebraska. Among their holdings are a dairy, developed a large-scale cow-calf operation Ocean Field southwest of Houston in four large-scale feedlots, more than 50,000 in New Mexico between Portales and Brazoria County. Dan Jr. made a name for acres of irrigated farmland, and four ranches Roswell, where he has acquired three large himself as a breeder of champion Quarter across the Nebraska Plains. tracts. The City native’s SS brand Horses. He registered his first with the is increasingly recognized throughout the AQHA in 1941. In 2010, Royal Dutch Crosby Family Southwest. His latest endeavor is the Payne Shell wrote Dan III a check for $1 billion 80| 135,000 acres Mountain Wind Farm Project northwest plus a share of the royalties on future oil Based in New Orleans, Crosby Land and of Austin. Read more about this innovative and gas production from the family’s Resources celebrated its 75th anniversary landowner in Nancy Myers’s in-depth profile 100,000-acre South Texas ranch, which last year. The family-owned forestry business in the Winter 2013 issue of The Land Report. is perched atop the Eagle Ford Shale. is led by Robert H. Crosby III, who was named the 2013 Forest Landowner of the Patrick Broe Lane Family Year by the Forest Landowners Association. 76| 140,862 acres 77| 140,000 acres In 2014, Broe sold his largest holding, New In the 1960s, Montana natives Tom and Monahan Family Mexico’s 457-square-mile Great Western Robert Lane formed Lane Brothers Cattle 81| 130,000 acres Ranch, to D.R. Horton (see No. 32). The Co. Tom traded cattle and land throughout Based in Montana, Monahan Cattle Co. 292,779-acre ranch included 176,805 deeded Montana, while Robert ran the home ranch. started as a 160-acre homestead in 1893. acres and 115,974 acres of leased land. Jeff Today, third-generation members of the Today, the family raises commercial cattle Buerger of Hall and Hall represented Broe. family manage the still-growing enterprise. and registered Herefords.

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Somebody had to do it! Credit Isaac Ellwood for paying Joseph Glidden $265 for a half-interest in “barb wire.” The two made a fortune fencing in the West.

Ellwood Heirs Brite Heirs textiles and chemicals empire cofounded 81| 130,000 Acres 84| 125,000 acres in 1865 by his great-grandfather Seth Founder Isaac Ellwood was a patent holder Lucas Charles Brite established his Bar Milliken. In October 2008, he was named for “barb wire.” His Renderbrook Spade was Cross brand at the foot of Presidio County’s chairman of The Nature Conservancy’s one of the first ranches to be fenced in Texas. Capote Mountain in Far West Texas. Today, board of directors. Says Roger, “A healthy Today, the Renderbrook is joined by Wagon the fourth generation of the family oversees forest is an essential foundation for a Creek Spade, Panhandle Spade, Borden Brite Ranch operations, including the sale of financially healthy company.” Spade, North Spade, and Alpine Spade. line-bred Herefords and a hunting program. | Roxanne Quimby | Davis Heirs | Reese Family 88 119,000 acres 83 127,500 acres 86 122,200 acres In 1975, 24-year-old Roxanne Quimby, a In 1873, Frank Springer founded the CS In 1914, the original Reese homestead native with an art degree, Ranch, a New Mexico outfit that straddles was just a half-section (320 acres). In 2014, arrived in the North Woods of Maine in a the Cimarron cutoff on the Santa Fe Trail. the family’s Rockin' 7 Ranch in Wyoming VW van. She and her boyfriend had driven Grandson Les Davis took the reins in 1947. celebrated its centennial. “But we didn’t from California to homestead 30 acres on To this day, the CS Cattle Company remains stop working long enough to celebrate the edge of the largest expanse of wilderness a family-owned operation, run by Les’s our 100th," says Brad Reese. east of the . Nine years later, widow, Linda, and their six children. Quimby entered into a collaboration with | Milliken Family a beekeeper named Burt Shavitz. The rest is Booth Family 87 119,500 acres history. After selling Burt’s Bees to the Clorox 84| 125,000 acres Roger Milliken Jr. is president of the family’s Company for $350 million, Quimby used Booth Land and Livestock Co. is a cow-calf Baskahegan Company, which owns and the proceeds to buy huge swaths of Maine operator with locations in both Colorado manages more than 100,000 acres of Maine woodlands. She and her son are currently and Wyoming. The family is known for its timberland. He also serves on the board campaigning to donate more than 100,000 forward-thinking wildlife management. of Milliken & Co., a -based acres to create two new parks.

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The Scharbauers’ Alysheba won the 1987 Kentucky Derby.

Moursund Family active preservationists who have placed more Linnebur Heirs 89| 115,000 Acres than 70,000 acres of their holdings under 94| 110,000 acres With working ranchland that stretches conservation easements. The couple has The descendants of Gene, Emmett, and from Texas into Oklahoma, Nebraska, and been recognized by the Texas Parks and Lloyd Linnebur continue their family’s South Dakota, the Moursunds continue a Wildlife Foundation for innovative tech- diverse farming and cattle operations in ranching tradition that began generations ago niques to restore and conserve ranchland. Eastern Colorado. on both sides of the family tree. Today, Will Stribling Moursund and Mary Moursund | Stan Harper | Richard Evans Reagor oversee operations. 92 111,977 acres 95 109,000 acres As the owner of Lenders & Members As hard-luck stories go, having 270 head | Scharbauer Family Service Group, Harper obviously knows of emaciated cattle seized by the New 90 113,532 acres the auto-loan business cold. But the Harper Mexico Livestock Board is bad news. Family patriarch Clarence Scharbauer Jr. clan also knows a thing or two about ranch- Letting another 25 perish from passed away this February, but his legacy ing. Harper Cattle runs a sizeable operation malnutrition is far worse. But being (and that of his family) continues to shine in New Mexico and has additional holdings charged with animal cruelty is as low as in West Texas’s Permian Basin. The family in North Texas. it goes. This woeful series of events from manages various ranches, including Valor 2013, which made national news, may be Farm in Denton County. Frank VanderSloot why Richard Evans has listed his Double V 93| 110,448 Acres Ranch in Chaves and DeBaca Counties, | Clayton & Modesta Williams Jr. In addition to his success as an entrepreneur, New Mexico. Ben Scott of Scott Land Co. 91 112,042 acres VanderSloot is also a well-regarded rancher. has the $24 million listing on the Double V, Oil and gas legend Clayton Williams Jr. His Fort Ranch in Utah is known for its which includes more than 13,000 acres of grew up in Fort Stockton; his wife, Modesta, superior Quarter Horses, while Idaho’s BLM and State of New Mexico leases. also hails from a ranching family. The two Riverbend Ranch is famous for its purebred Keep in mind that New Mexico has had its are dedicated ranchers, avid hunters, and Black Angus. driest two years on record since 1895.

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No. 100 Gen. B.F. Butler waded into one of the most contentious disputes in U.S. history, the Mora Land Grant.

Luther King Robinson Family Butler Heirs 96| 108,000 new to LR100 98| 103,000 acres 100| 101,315 acres This Texas Christian University alumnus Ni’ihau, the “Forbidden Island” of Hawaii, The Butler’s Fort Union Ranch, which owns Central Texas’s 4K Ranch, which is has been privately owned by the Robinsons dates back to 1885, has been stewarded by watered by Brady Creek and the San Saba for 150 years. Current owners Keith and the family for six generations since its River. A chartered financial analyst (CFA), Bruce Robinson are great-great-grandsons founding by Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler. King is currently a trustee and the former of Elizabeth Sinclair, who famously pur- While serving in Congress, Butler met Chairman of the Board of Trustees at TCU, chased the island from King Kamehameha Thomas Benton Catron, a lawyer who where he received the Distinguished V in 1864 for $10,000 in gold. The brothers would later serve as the first senator from Alumnus Award in 1992. As of June 30, 2014, continue to make good on her promise to the State of New Mexico. Catron was the the firm he founded in 1979, Luther King preserve the island’s traditional culture. largest landowner in the West at the time, Capital Management, had $15.2 billion having bought several Mexican land grants. in assets under management. | Riggs Family Soon, Butler and his son-in-law, Adelbert 99 102,822 acres Ames, began to purchase interests in the Arthur Nicholas In the late 19th century, back when Mora Grant. Butler held his land interests in 97| 105,119 acres Arizona was a territory, not a state, Brannick the Union Land and Grazing Company, The cofounder of Nicholas Investment Riggs settled in the still-wild foothills of the which he established in 1885. The Fort Union Partners, an independent, SEC-registered rugged Chiricahua Mountains in Cochise Ranch, now a 95,315-acre working cattle investment advisor, Nicholas owns the County. Along with his siblings, great-grand- ranch near Watrous, is crossed by traces of Wagonhound Land and Livestock ranch son John Riggs has developed master plans the Santa Fe Trail and surrounds the Fort in Douglas, Wyoming. The Wagonhound is to keep the family’s ranch holdings intact Union National Monument. It borders one of the largest commercial Red Angus via the establishment of two sustainable the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge. producers in the nation, and its big-game communities on the ranch, Brannick and The ranch is managed by five directors, hunting program is nationally renowned. The Mare Pasture. all descendants of Gen. Butler.

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