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4 TheLandReport | WINTER 2015 LANDREPORT.COM “America’s largest landowners continue to recognize land as a compelling asset, one whose numerous attributes go well beyond ROI.” ri Oeee

Researched by Jeremiah Jensen, Lisa Martin, Katy Richardson & Roxanna Thompson

LANDREPORT.COM WINTER 2015 | TheLandReport 3 10TheLand Report 0 RICK WILKING/REUTERS RICK WILKING/REUTERS

Liberty Media Chairman John Malone arrives at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, .

arlier this year, the Malone Family Land Preservation Foundation paid E$1.7 million for the 230-acre Gorrill John Malone Farmstead near Lawrence, . Not a big 2,200,000 acres deal, right? Think again. The purchase reflects a handshake of far greater consequence. The Gorrill is a tract that its prior owner, The Land Institute, used to study perennial grain crops. Perennials live more than one year, yet current agriculture practices focus almost exclusively 1on ecologically taxing annuals. The idea behind perennial crop research is to develop grains that reduce the harm on the environment while saving farmers time and money. This piqued the interest of the Foundation, which pledged $1.5 million per year to a joint project with The Land Institute called the Perennial Agriculture Project. Stay tuned for updates in 2016.

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Turner Enterprises manages more than 51,000 bison on Turner Ranches, including the historic Standing Butte Ranch.

he owner of the world’s largest private herd of bison just acquired the world’s Tbest loved bison habitat: the historic Standing Butte Ranch, which was featured in the Academy Award-winning Western Dances with Wolves (1990). ’s Capital Ted Turner Journal broke the news of the transaction in 2,000,000+ acres late September. Formerly known as the Triple U, the ranch encompasses almost 46,000 acres of natural prairie in Central South Dakota near Lake Oahe. In addition to an existing herd of 3,500 bison, it supports numerous other native species, including pronghorn antelope and 2 whitetailed deer.

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MARK LATHROP/SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIES The rugged Pacific Northwest is home to the Emmersons’ holdings.

ierra Pacific Industries (SPI) was founded in 1949 by Curly Emmerson and his son, SRed. The company has been owned and operated by the family ever since and currently employs 4,500. The range of current projects in the works at SPI is staggering: in , developing a significant conservation project at Lake Tahoe near the Northstar Ski Resort; 3 in , demolishing an old sawmill and replacing it with a new plant; acquiring Hurd Windows and Doors in ; and Emmerson Family producing renewable power from five cogenera- 1,915,000 acres tion facilities in two states. Of note was the 2015 acquisition of 54,000 acres in Western up 54,000 acres Washington from Murray Pacific Corporation.

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10TheLand Report 0 KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS LAMARQUE/REUTERS KEVIN

Erin Kelley hoists the alumet Farm ranks as perhaps the Preakness Stakes trophy most celebrated acquisition by this native. Established in 1924, after Oxbow won the 138th C the Bluegrass landmark produced a record running of the middle leg number of Kentucky Derby and Triple of the Triple Crown in 2013. Crown winners under the leadership of the Wright family. But in the early 1990s, J.T. Lundy ran Calumet into the ground. Lundy 4 was convicted of fraud and sent to prison, and Calumet filed for bankruptcy. In 1992, Henryk de Kwiatkowski saved the farm from liquidation; in 2012 Brad Kelley set out to Brad Kelley return it to its former heights. The very next year, Kelley’s runner, Oxbow, won the 2013 1,500,000+ acres Preakness Stakes. The colt’s one-and-three- quarters-length victory marked Calumet’s first win in a Triple Crown race since 1968.

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10TheLand Report 0 SHUTTERSTOCK

Earlier this year, 015 marked an auspicious year for the Green Diamond Reed family’s Green Diamond Resource planted its 100 2Company. At a ceremony near Shelton, millionth tree. Washington, the company’s chairman, Colin Moseley, planted a ceremonial tree, the 100 millionth the family has planted. “Just a few miles from here, my great-grandfather started Simpson Logging Company in 1890. One hundred twenty-five years later, we stand in a third-generation forest that will be harvested again somewhere around 2050, when our 5 grandchildren will be running the company and making decisions for their grandchildren. It's quite a leap of faith.” Reed Family 1,370,000 acres

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ne of the wealthiest families in Canada, the Irvings oversee a Odiverse series of companies from their New Brunswick headquarters. Founded in 1882 by J.D. Irving, it grew substantially under the leadership of his son, Kenneth Colin “K.C.” Irving. Today, the family refines 320,000 barrels of oil a day and supplies one- fifth of U.S. oil product imports. Through 6 Brunswick News Inc., the Irvings publish all three of New Brunswick’s daily English newspapers. The Irvings are also the largest Irving Family landowners in the Pine Tree State. Irving 1,250,000 acres Woodlands oversees the family’s timberlands, which include 1.25 million acres in and 2 million in Canada. CANADIAN PRESS CANADIAN

This wonderful vintage photograph from 1960 shows K.C. Irving with his wife and three sons.

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TONY STROMBERG The American Quarter Horse Association honored Singleton Ranches with its Best amily patriarch Henry Singleton Remuda Award in 2012. (1916–1999) was a man of science. FThe MIT graduate cofounded the industrial conglomerate Teledyne with George Kozmetsky in 1960. Twenty-five years later, he bought the historic San Cristobal Ranch in ’s Galisteo Singleton Family Basin just south of Santa Fe. Within a 14- 1,100,00 acres year period, he acquired 28 other ranches. Currently, Singleton Ranches totals 1.1 7 million acres of deeded land. In addition to the family’s New Mexico holdings, the Singletons own and operate 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.

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

ounded in 1853 by Captain Richard King, the historic ranch is located in six South counties and has been privately Fowned through seven generations of King descendants. King Ranch today has significantly diversified its agricultural ventures to include cattle and feedlot operations, farming, citrus, sugar cane, turfgrass, pecan processing, recreational hunting and ecotourism. King Ranch lives by a generational promise to preserve and enhance the resources that sustain it and is widely recognized 8 for its innovative research and production methods. King Ranch remains focused on the true sustainability of all its natural resources, including ranges, water, livestock, wildlife and people. King Ranch Heirs 911,215 acres

LANDREPORT.COM WINTER 2015 | TheLandReport 19 10TheLand Report 0 RICK WILKING/REUTERS

Kroenke and former NBA Commissioner David Stern chat at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

ike other leading landowners, Kroenke’s substantial land holdings are augmented by numerous other business Linterests. In addition to his real estate development firm, the Kroenke Group, the native has assembled a portfolio of sports teams that Forbesrecently estimated could be worth $6 billion. It includes the English soccer team Arsenal, the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, the NHL’s Avalanche, the 9 NBA’s , and MLS’s . 848,631 acres

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

n 1841, the Merchant Prince of Salem, David Pingree, purchased his first tract of Maine timberland. Pingree Ihad become interested in land when acquiring pine cargo, and he sensed that the heyday of the clipper ships 10 was coming to an end. Pingree ended up purchasing land in more than 100 different Maine townships as well as a few in . Today, Pingree family land is owned by the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of his Pingree Heirs descendants and is managed by Seven Islands Land Co. 830,000 acres

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No. 14 cowboys get ready to ride out.

WYMAN MEINZER

Ford Family counties. History-steeped Catarina Ranch, they sold their 70 percent interest in Frac 11| 625,000 acres spread over 100,000 acres, is regarded as Tech to a partnership led by Singapore's In the 1930s, Kenneth Ford (1908–1997) some of the finest trophy whitetailed deer Temasek Holdings for $3.5 billion. This year, started out with a single sawmill near Rose- hunting in the world. they vaulted into half-million-acre territory burg, . He bought timberlands that thanks to expanded holdings in . had been repossessed for non payment of | W.T. Waggoner Estate The duo’s acquisitions generated plenty of taxes. When the post–World War II housing 14 535,000 acres buzz. A proposed land exchange between boom hit, Roseburg Forest Products was Dan Waggoner (1828–1902) established the the Bureau of Land Management and Wilks poised to expand. Today, the company Waggoner Ranch in 1849. His son, W.T. Ranch Montana met with opposition from makes engineered wood products, lumber, (1852–1934), expanded it even more. Today, conservationists. The Wilks responded by plywood, and particle board. CEO Allyn the W.T. Waggoner Ranch is managed by offering access to the Lewis and Clark Ford oversees timberlands in Western codirectors A.B. “Buck” Wharton and Gene National Forest. Negotiations continue. Oregon and Northern California along Willingham. The two oversee a massive with manufacturing plants nationwide. cattle operation, a horse breeding program, Simplot Family crop production, and more. The iconic hold- 17| 443,591 acres up 21,091 acres | Lykes Heirs ing, which ranks as the largest in Texas under Sustainability serves as a guiding principle 12 615,000 acres one fence, has been on the market for $725 for Boise-based J.R. Simplot Company, From orange juice to beef cattle in million since 2014. which focuses on phosphate mining, fertiliz- Texas, the Lykes family remains one of the ers, farming, ranching, cattle, food process- most prominent agribusiness clans south O’Connor Heirs ing, and other agricultural endeavors. The of the Mason-Dixon line with a net worth 15| 500,000 acres mastermind behind the frozen French fry, north of $1 billion. Innovations with Legendary Lone Star cattleman Dennis patriarch J.R. Simplot was credited with mechanical harvesters helped streamline Martin O’Connor, who in 1887 inherited his “thinking green” long before the term existed. operations at some 30,000 acres of Lykes father’s vast holdings in Aransas, Goliad, La In 2015, the FDA approved the safety of Citrus groves, which produced more than 35 Salle, McMullen, Refugio, and San Patricio Simplot’s trademarked Innate potato million gallons of orange juice. In addition to counties, put down roots on 180,000 acres varieties, which boast fewer black spots integrated cow-calf operations, Lykes Ranch in Victoria County, where he proceeded to from bruising and stay whiter longer. Even also sets standards with its highly productive pioneer water-drilling operations that often competitors concede it’s a game changer. sugar cane and forestry programs. struck oil. Fast-forward more than a dozen decades to a flourishing cow-calf operation | Briscoe Family catering to the heat-and tick-resistant Santa 18 434,500 acres 13| 560,000 acres Gertrudis breed. Marian Pfister Anschutz was a Kansas Successive generations of the Uvalde-based schoolteacher who hoped that her son would descendants of former Texas governor Dolph Wilks Brothers become a professor of history at Ft. Hays Briscoe Jr. — whose leadership helped eradi- 15| 500,000 acres up 152,500 acres State Teachers College. Instead, Anschutz cate the devastating screwworm — continue Texas-based brothers Dan and Farris Wilks built the The Anschutz Corporation into a to work the family land throughout nine earned their fortune in fracking. In 2011, financial powerhouse whose varied interests

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Interested in the stories of the No. 18 Old West? Then get your hands on Philip Anschutz’s new book.

TIMOTHY THIMMES/T SQUARED STUDIOS range from oil and gas production, to the state as well as Montana, Idaho, and , remaining SandRidge shares in 2007. Southern Pacific Railroad, to ownership of the including Idaho’s Sun Valley Resort, which Mitchell’s 350,000-acre Longfellow Ranch Kings and an interest in the Los Holding purchased after his first time on skis. near his hometown of Sanderson offers Angeles Lakers. But as Henry Brooks Adams world-class elk and mule deer hunts. noted, the influence of a teacher never stops. | Hughes Family In 2015, Anschutz penned Out Where the 21 390,000 acres D.R. Horton West Begins, an enjoyable read chronicling The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission 23| 371,805 acres up 109,000 acres the fortunes of early Western business lead- honored the Hughes family by christening The Texas homebuilder acquired new lands ers. Marian Anschutz would have approved. a portion of the Devils River State Natural in the Southwest, snapping up New Mexico’s Area the Dan A. Hughes Unit. Hughes led a 109,000-acre Double V Ranch in Chaves | Drummond Family $10 million fundraising effort that resulted in and DeBaca Counties. Formerly owned by 19 433,000 acres the purchase of 17,000 acres along the Devils Richard Evans, the Double V fell victim to The Drummonds helped write ranching River in Val Verde County. “The acquisition the worst drought in more than a century. history in , and there’s plenty of of this culturally and environmentally unique In 2014, Horton added the Great Western story left to tell. The patriarch emigrated piece of Texas could not have happened Ranch to his holdings, which also include from Scotland as a teen and married Kansas without Mr. Hughes’ spirit of generosity Camp Horton, an 86,000-acre ranch in native Addie Gentner. All three of their sons and leadership,” said Texas Parks and Wildlife West Texas. became successful cattle ranchers, and their Department Director Carter Smith. descendants manage hundreds of thousands | Collins Family of acres in Oklahoma and Kansas. Malone Mitchell 3rd 24 310,472 acres 22| 384,000 acres With FSC-certified forests in , | Holding Family In 2006, this West Texan sold his interest Oregon, and Northern California, the Collins 20 400,000 acres in Riata Energy to Chesapeake Energy co- Family became early adopters of eco-friendly Heirs of Robert Earl Holding, who launched founder Tom Ward for $500 million. Riata practices, which continue to help minimize an empire in 1952 with the purchase of an was renamed SandRidge, and the company the company’s carbon footprint thanks to an interest in a 24-hour gas station located in then acquired Carl Icahn's National Energy abiding commitment to ecosystem manage- Little America, , own land in that Group for $1.5 billion. Mitchell sold his ment and natural biodiversity.

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No. 26 announces plans to build a rocket manufacturing plant and launch site at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as Florida Gov. Rick Scott looks on. MIKE BROWN/SPACE FLORIDA MIKE BROWN/SPACE

Nunley Brothers | Mike Smith cattle on open range west of the Pecos. In 25| 301,500 acres 27 286,066 acres up 23,000 acres 1912, Lee’s son, Herbert Lee Sr. (1867–1949), Legendary Texas cattleman Red Nunley took Mike Smith has amassed significant land began to piece together the immense prop- up ranching more than seven decades ago holdings in the Texas Panhandle and Eastern erty now known as the o6 and the Leoncita and partnered with other landowners to im- New Mexico. The majority of his acreage Cattle Company. prove breeding techniques. Today, Nunley is grassland for running cattle. Smith, who Brothers Ranches is owned and managed by is based in Amarillo, also has holdings be- | Anne Marion Red’s grandsons, Richard and Bob. They run tween Dallas and Waco. 30 275,000 acres cattle on ranches spanning from South Texas Anne Burnett Marion holds the reins of to the Texas Hill Country and across the Collier Family the legendary 6666 (“Four Sixes”) Ranch Trans-Pecos to Alpine. 28| 280,000 acres established by her great-grandfather, Samuel After earning a cool million in advertising “Burk” Burnett, as well as other acreage that Jeff Bezos during the Jazz Age, Barron Collier lent has yielded more than 100 million barrels of 26| 290,000 acres his name to Florida’s 62nd county as he set oil to date. Along the way, she’s altered the In mid-September, Florida Gov. Rick Scott about buying up acreage; his great-grand- landscape of the Western arts scene, too. announced that Bezos’s Blue Origin had children continue to guide the clan’s diverse Not only did she found Santa Fe’s selected Cape Canaveral as a hub for agribusiness efforts into the 21st century. O’Keeffe Museum, but Marion also remains manufacturing and launching its Orbital Ongoing interests include mineral manage- a benefactor of the Kimbell Art Museum Launch Vehicle. Blue Origin was established ment and agriculture throughout the and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. by Amazon founder Bezos to develop Sunshine State, including the USDA organic- vehicles and technologies to enable certified Collier Family Farms near Naples. Babbitt Heirs commercial human space transportation. 31| 270,000 acres The company has a long-term vision of Kokernot Heirs President and fourth-generation family greatly increasing the number of people 29| 278,000 acres member Billy Cordasco oversees operations that fly into space. Prior to Gov. Scott’s Among the most storied ranches in Far West from the Northern outpost of announcement, Blue Origin had utilized Texas, the o6 brand was registered as early as Flagstaff, which includes a recent partnership Bezos’s 290,000-acre Far West Texas ranch 1837. It was purchased by John Kokernot in with federal officials to reintroduce the to launch its space vehicles. 1872, who, with brother Lee, began grazing endangered black-footed ferret to the wild.

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Justin Granberg, a third-generation member of the Lyda family, on La Escalera Ranch – Fort Stockton Division. TREY LYDA/WWW.LYDA.TV TREY

Llano Partners around Corpus Christi, including Alta Vista George Thomas and William David Reynolds 32| 265,000 acres Ranch, which has steadfastly maintained registered the Long X brand, and the two With vast ranching, farming, and cattle the vaquero tradition of horsemanship. began running their herds as far west as the operations throughout Texas and New Davis Mountains and as far north as Mexico, Hughes Abell remains the sole Killam Family Wyoming, Utah, Montana, , the proprietor of an eponymous livestock 34| 255,000 acres Dakotas, and Canada. Thanks to their suc- operation while also offering leadership on Nearly half the family’s holdings consist of cess, they were able to establish a base of the executive committee of the Texas and Duval County Ranch near the South Texas operations on ranches in Haskell, Shack- Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association town of Freer, a once-distressed ecosystem elford, and Throckmorton Counties. In 1884, as well as the National Cattlemen’s Beef that David Killam has worked tirelessly to they incorporated at the First National Bank Promotion and Research Board. restore. Abundant wildlife includes white- in Albany. In 1895, they acquired 232,000 tailed deer, wild hogs, and javelina. acres in Jeff Davis County on which they es- | Lyda Family tablished the Long X Ranch. The brothers’ 33 260,035 acres True Family heirs own ranches in Texas, New Mexico, La Escalera Ranch, which comprises the Lyda 34| 255,000 acres Arizona, Montana, and . Family holdings, consists of the Fort Stockton Seven ranches plus a pair of farms in Eastern Division (229,635 acres near Fort Stockton) Wyoming form True Ranches, which was Paul Fireman and the Seymour Division (30,400 acres founded in the mid-1950s. In addition to oil, 38| 247,000 acres northwest of Fort Worth). Through free- the family focuses on cattle, particularly The former chairman of Reebok owns range grazing, both divisions produce reputa- Angus, Black Baldy, Charolais, and Hereford. Winecup-Gamble Ranch, one of the largest tion Angus, which perennially prove in high deeded ranches in . Fireman also built demand by breeders and feedlot operators. Reynolds Family Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City. 37| 250,000 acres Jones Family In the years following the Civil War, the D.K. Boyd 34| 255,000 acres Reynoldses began ranching along the Clear 39| 244,332 acres Scions of William Whitby “Big Daddy” Jones Fork of the Brazos River near the frontier This rancher, oilman, and West Texas native’s maintain a network of ranches concentrated outpost of Fort Griffin, Texas. Brothers holdings include the 137,372-acre Frying Pan

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Ranch and the 106,065-acre LE Ranch, two Scott Family Today, the East Wildlife Foundation’s range- of the most historically significant cattle 44| 220,000 acres lands also support some 5,000 head of cattle. operations on the South Plains.Each enjoys Homer Scott was fresh out of engineering a legacy that dates back to the 1800s. school when he was sent westward in 1935 Hearst Family to open new territory for his then employer. 47| 214,000 acres | Koch Family The rangelands agreed with him, and in 1943 Media magnate William Randolph Hearst 40 239,000 acres he bought the 3,000-acre Padlock Ranch in (1863–1951) made history with his publish- Koch Industries is a multinational enterprise Wyoming to graze Hereford cows. The Pad- ing empire, but it was his father, George whose holdings include Koch Pipeline, Koch lock is still family owned, but its borders have Hearst (1820–1891), who built the family Fertilizer, and Koch Minerals. The family’s grown into neighboring Montana where the fortune. And it all began with land. (See ranch holdings date back to 1952, when family runs more than 10,000 cattle on a mix- Henry Chappell’s profile of Hearst Ranch in Fred Koch founded Matador Cattle Co., ture of private and leased land located on or the Summer 2014 issue of The Land Report.) which operates in Texas and Montana. near the Crow Indian Reservation. The elder Hearst was a Missouri native who ventured to California as a ’49er. A decade | Riggs Family Louis Bacon later, he and his partners hit pay dirt with 41 236,317 acres up 133,495 acres 45| 218,331 acres the Comstock Lode, the biggest silver rush Additional rangeland in New Mexico used 210,678 under conservation in American history. Hearst parlayed this for cattle grazing helped double the Riggs In the last two years, conservation philan- success into sundry other mining interests, Family holdings. The clan likewise maintains thropist Louis Bacon made continued in- including South Dakota’s Homestake Mine deep roots in the Chiricahua Mountains of roads to build upon conservation and and Montana’s Anaconda Copper Mine. He Arizona’s Cochise County, which patriarch restoration initiatives across his properties also bought 48,000 acres of ranchland near Brannick Riggs settled in the 19th century. and worked to protect other special places the tiny town of San Simeon in Central One of the family’s pair of sustainable com- throughout the country. In 2014, The Moore California. He eventually expanded that munities is named for the -born Charitable Foundation partnered with initial purchase to 270,000 acres. Today, patriarch who began his career driving a Middlebury College to establish the Bread the family’s rural landholdings in California mule team for the United States Army. Loaf Preservation Fund, which will preserve include the 80,000-acre Piedra Blanca and maintain the Bread Loaf campus and the Rancho at San Simeon, the 73,000-acre Kenedy Memorial Foundation surrounding forests and fields while also Jack Ranch near Cholame, and 61,000 acres 42| 235,000 Acres NEW TO LIST supporting educational programming and of timberland in Northern California. This vast ranch owned by the Kenedy recreational activities. Much of the 2,100 Memorial Foundation was created by Sarita acres will be protected through a conserva- | Gage Heirs Kenedy East in honor of her parents, John tion easement held by the Land 48 213,730 acres Gregory Kenedy Sr. and Marie Stella Turcotte Trust working in collaboration with The In 1879, soon after moving from Vermont Kenedy. The nonprofit Kenedy Foundation Nature Conservancy. The Orton Foundation, to the Big Bend region of Far West Texas, Ranch lies just an hour’s drive south of the affiliate of Bacon’s Moore 21-year-old Alfred Gage began to learn the Corpus Christi, in the coastal bend of South Charitable Foundation, supports The Nature cattle trade and began acquiring small plots Texas Rio Grande Plains, and features a vast Conservancy’s efforts to restore the iconic of land throughout the Trans-Pecos region. range of climates. The ranch is comprised longleaf pine forest throughout North By the end of his days, he had accumulated of four sections, including landscapes rich in Carolina’s Coastal Plain. At Orton Plantation, enough resources to build the Gage Hotel natural diversity, from native prairie brush to Bacon is restoring thousands of acres of in Marathon, which first welcomed guests coastal marshes and even a serene beach. longleaf pine forest through controlled burns in 1927. and other management practices with the Bidegain Family goal of restoring 11,000 acres by 2017. | Cassidy Heirs 43| 225,000 acres 49 212,985 acres Alongside sons Donnie and Scott, and | East Wildlife Foundation As a boy of 10, John Cassidy crossed the with the help of wife, Laurie, Philip Bidegain 46 215,729 acres up 729 acres Atlantic from his native Ireland with nothing oversees operations of T4 Cattle Company, Tom East Sr. first registered his Diamond Bar more than a pack on his back. He hauled founded in 1902 by his great-grandmother brand in 1912 and proceeded to aggressively bricks to make ends meet. Buying up Maine in Eastern New Mexico. Widely admired for acquire land throughout South Texas, includ- timberland at $2 and $3 an acre in the late sensitive and savvy land management, the ing the legendary Llanos Mesteños, the stark 1800s, he founded Cassidy Timberlands, family has bred Quarter Horses on their landscape where the last of the wild Spanish which is still based in Bangor with holdings property since World War II. mustangs roamed in the early 20th century. throughout the Pine State.

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Seven generations of the Hearst family have called the Piedra Blanca Rancho home. RICHARD FIELD LEVINE

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No. 50 Facing down a skittish herd at the 10 0 Hunt’s Hoodoo Land & Cattle Company. HOODOO LAND & CATTLE COMPANY HOODOO LAND & CATTLE

Langdale Family Hunt Family Williams Family 50| 200,000 acres 50| 200,000 acres 54| 181,000 acres While steadfastly planting more trees each The history of Hunt Oil Company dates In 1883, St. Louis shoe manufacturer Eugene year since the 1930s than it harvests — more back to the 1930s and the storied Daisy Williams felt the tug of the West and invested than a hundred-million seedlings to date — Bradford No. 3. Although H.L. Hunt focused in the 168,000-acre Pitchfork Land and the Georgia-based Langdale Company has on the East Texas Oilfield, his son Ray and Cattle Company, which is known to locals long practiced progressive environmental Ray’s family now own and operate farms, as “The Forks.” His namesake grandson, a stewardship. The forest-products sector of ranches, and other landholdings in Arizona, retired banker, oversaw the operation for the family-run business manages hardwood Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and decades, including its signature Pitchfork stands on 30- to 40-year rotations. John Wyoming through their family-owned Gray horse program. Langdale Jr. serves as company chair; John Hoodoo Land and Cattle Company. Langdale III is president and CEO. Robert A. Funk Bogle Family 55| 175,000 acres Eugene Gabrych 53| 182,000 acres down 10,000 acres The gregarious chairman of Express Employ- 50| 200,000 acres From champion steeds to corn and cows, the ment Professionals was the subject of an The jewel in the crown of Gabrych’s vast Bogle Family has thrived in New Mexico’s in-depth cover story in the Fall 2011 issue holdings in Nevada and California remains Southeastern corner since 1917. Founding of The Land Report. “Trail Boss” detailed Rock Springs Ranch and Lodge, a 18,200-acre father Hal Bogle, who moved west to New the story of his spectacular UU Bar Ranch contiguous block of native grazing land Mexico for the sake of his health, launched in Northern New Mexico, his historic St. ideally situated between the Salinas and San an operation that today encompasses cattle, James Hotel in Cimarron, and his nationally Joaquin valleys. Cattle share the property cropland, farming, and an acclaimed Quarter renowned Express Ranches, home of the with tule elk, mule deer, and other game. Horse program. nation’s leading seedstock operation.

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No. 55

Express Employment head honcho Bob Funk with his best girl, Janine Regier, on his UU Bar Ranch. GUSTAV SCHMIEGE III SCHMIEGE GUSTAV

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McCoy & Remme Families Sugg Family 56| 174,300 acres 60| 166,655 acres These Texans own McCoy’s Building Supply The romance of running cattle lured E.C. as well as ranching operations in the central Sugg and his brothers to San Angelo, Texas, and western portions of the Lone Star State. in the early 1900s. They stayed when they They are equally well known for their charita- struck oil. Subsequent mineral rights and ble endeavors and support a multitude of royalties continue to bolster the fortunes organizations, including the Hays-Caldwell of Cal Sugg Jr. and his brother, Joel. Women’s Center, the San Marcos Youth Shelter, and the Miriam McCoy Pet Adoption | Fasken Family Center. They made a substantial gift to the 61 165,000 acres School of Business at Texas State University, One of Texas’s most notable energy families, which now bears their name: the McCoy the Faskens boast nearly a thousand oil wells College of Business. on their Permian Basin property, which the clan has owned for more than a century. In Russell Gordy 2015, the Fasken Foundation celebrated 60 57| 170,129 acres years of supporting a variety of Midland- Mineral rights have helped sweeten many based nonprofits and educational agencies. of the land deals made by Houston oilman Russell Gordy, who also knows a thing or Mike Mechenbier two about oil and gas, not to mention his 62| 163,800 acres cattle-ranching expertise. The son of a After purchasing a small farm in his native Houston police officer, Gordy put himself Albuquerque in 1979, Mechenbier, who through college working as a roughneck. studied business at New Mexico State, felt He’s reaped the rewards of that work ethic compelled to diversify when disease dissemi- and owns properties in Colorado, Montana, nated his neophyte pig operation. Less than New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming. a generation later, he had become one of the state’s largest landowners with an emphasis Broadbent Family on farming, ranching, and feedlot operations 58| 170,000 acres that continues today. Sheep, particularly the fine-wooled Rambouillet, served as the cornerstone of Cogdell Family patriarch Joseph Ray Broadbent’s livestock 63| 160,000 acres empire in Utah, Wyoming, and California’s In the midst of the Civil War, 12-year-old Imperial Valley starting nearly a century ago. David Muncy Cogdell dropped out of school By the 1950s, the family had expanded into to help his father run a West Texas general cattle and other livestock, a tradition that store. Just shy of his 20th birthday, he would continues to this day. parlay his business acumen into a network of Panhandle ranches extending 150 miles to Irwin Heirs either side of Lubbock. The discovery of oil 58| 170,000 acres on the family land helped spur a strong and Just north of Prescott, Arizona, O RO Ranch ongoing tradition of local philanthropy. earns its reputation as one of the most remote spots in the state — a place where Fanjul Family only ranch-raised horses have the withers 63| 160,000 acres to withstand the punishingly rocky terrain, Sugar barons Alfonso “Alfy” and brother which climbs some 7,500 feet in elevation. José “Pepe” settled in Palm Beach County John N. Irwin II purchased the property a half century ago and set about replicating in 1973 with the expressed intention of the farming success of their native Cuba. preserving the cowboy legacy so vital to the Florida Crystals’ ascent to the top tier of development of the Grand Canyon State. agricultural operations in the U.S. stands His descendants honor that vision each day. as a quintessential American success story.

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David Murdock 71| 149,700 acres The Dole Food mogul has divested himself in the last few years of several luxury properties, including a Bel Air mansion and a City pied-à-terre, not to mention most of his stake in the Hawaiian Island of Lana’i, which he famously sold to tech . One property Murdock hasn’t parted ways with: Southern California’s storied Ventura Farms, the scenic 1,300-acre spread No. 65 on which he breeds champion Arabians.

The JA Ranch is the oldest Wells Family | 149,000 acres privately owned ranch in the 72 Texas Panhandle. Thomas Wells put down roots for the Rush Creek Land & Livestock operation

JA RANCH JA just before the turn of the 20th century. Now the Wells family’s holdings stretch | JA Ranch Heirs Boswell Family out over eight counties in the Cornhusker 65 158,500 acres 67| 150,000 acres State. In addition to overseeing a successful Founded in 1876 through a partnership Heirs of James Boswell, a Georgia native cow-calf operation, Rush Creek also raises between Irish businessman John Adair, who settled in California’s San Joaquin alfalfa and grass hay (for feed). It also runs Cornelia Adair, and Charles Goodnight, Valley in the 1920s and set about creating a commercial hunting program. the JA is the oldest continuously operated the world’s largest cotton operation, continue family cattle ranch in the Texas Panhandle. to oversee the privately held J.G. Boswell L-A-D Foundation Today, operations are overseen by fifth- Company. The J.G. Boswell Tomato Co. 73| 147,000 acres up 1,000 acres generation family member Andrew Bivins, ranks as the country’s second-largest St. Louis businessman Leo Drey began who uses GPS technology to manage the processing tomato grower, accounting for purchasing land in the Missouri Ozarks in sizable ranch. The JA’s pioneering efforts 10 percent of the Golden State’s crop. 1951 as a demonstration of a sustainable earned the family the Lone Star Land method of timber harvest known as single- Steward Award from the Texas Parks Eddy Family tree selection. In 1962, Drey began donating and Wildlife Department. 67| 150,000 acres tracts of land to the L-A-D Foundation to As owners of Port Blakely Companies, this preserve particularly significant natural and | Ellison Family Pacific Northwest-based clan has provided cultural sites for future generations. In 2004, 66 152,000 acres leadership in forestry and land development Drey and his wife donated the majority of E.P. Ellison purchased the bankrupt Spanish for a century with an emphasis on environ- their land, Pioneer Forest, to the Foundation. Ranch in 1925, and the family has held on mental stewardship. James “Jim” Eddy Leo Drey passed away this year at the age tightly to the venerable Elko County, Nevada, Warjone, a third-generation family member, of 98. The L-A-D Foundation continues property ever since. Other holdings include serves as the company’s chairman; several to operate his successful working forest, 71 Ranch in Halleck, Nevada, and several years ago, he recruited his second cousin, protecting sensitive watersheds, cultural farms serving as feedlots. René Ancinas, to replace him as CEO. landmarks, and areas of high ecological value.

Bass Family Green Heirs Don Oppliger 67| 150,000 acres 67| 150,000 acres 74| 146,322 acres up 6,322 acres When the fortune of fabled oilman Sid Three generations of Greens maintain a Based in Amarillo, The Oppliger Companies Richardson passed to his great-nephews, ranching legacy that defines life in and are a diversified agribusiness operation the four beneficiary Bass brothers opted around historic Albany, Texas. Today, that operates in Texas, New Mexico, and to invest in companies as well as properties Billy Green runs Hereford, Angus, and Nebraska. Among their holdings is a dairy, throughout the Southwest, including Black Baldies. Green Ranch’s Quarter six large-scale feedlots, more than 50,000 significant holdings in and around their Horse program is also recognized for its acres of irrigated farmland, and four ranches hometown of Fort Worth. award-winning broodmare band. across the Nebraska Plains.

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No. 83

Per Richard Smart, the Parker Ranch benefits the educational and health needs of the Waimea community. GREG VAUGHN / ALAMY VAUGHN GREG

Benjy Griffith III Topeka-based Crossroads Agriculture | Ellwood Heirs 75| 145,000 acres down 80,000 acres embraces innovation on his vast holdings 83 130,000 acres Nationally known as the founder of Southern in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas. Barbed wire changed the American land- Pine Plantations, Griffith has trimmed his scape, and original patriarch Isaac Ellwood, a holdings in recent years, exiting Montana Patrick Broe patent holder for the invention, is to thank. with the sale of his Willow Creek Ranch 79| 140,862 acres His Renderbrook Spade was one of the first and selling off his timberlands. After founding his Denver-based real estate ranches to be fenced in the Lone Star State, That still leaves him with more than 225 asset management company in 1972, Pat setting a historical precedent that so many square miles of productive forestland in Broe started collecting properties that would follow. Today, the Renderbrook is not Florida, , Texas, Virginia, catered to his interest in agricultural invest- alone; also under the Ellwood umbrella are and Georgia, where he is headquartered ments along with oil and gas. This spring, the Wagon Creek Spade, Panhandle Spade, in Macon. he purchased the Great Western Railway, Borden Spade, North Spade, and Alpine which connects the Burlington Northern Spade — known together as Spade Ranches. | Gerald J. Ford Santa Fe to the Union Pacific. 76 144,580 acres | Monahan Family While owning thoroughbred horse-breeding Harrison Family 83 130,000 acres operations in Kentucky and California as 80| 140,000 acres The Nebraska-based clan maintains the well as the 500-square-mile Diamond A For nearly 75 years, some of America’s finest thriving Monahan Cattle Company, a Ranch in Picacho, New Mexico, this philan- quarter horses have hailed from the Harri- legacy from founding father J.H. Monahan thropic-minded entrepreneur likewise lends son’s family ranch just southwest of Houston. that dates to 1893. Today, the family-run unparalleled financial support to SMU, his There, three generations of family members concern spreads across a trio of Cornhusker alma mater, as well as myriad Dallas social have guided the breeding operations for State counties. services agencies. renowned AQHA-competition horses. | Parker Ranch Foundation Trust Arthur Nicholas Lane Family 83 130,000 acres NEW TO LIST 77| 144,102 acres up 38,983 acres 80| 140,000 acres In 1845, King Kamehameha bestowed a land Under the names of various legal entities, The heirs of legendary Montana rancher grant upon John Parker, and a cattle kingdom including Nicholas Investment Properties Thomas Lane, who along with his brother, was born. Parker’s descendants ran their and Wagonhound Land & Livestock, this Robert, formed Lane Brothers Cattle storied ranch until 1992 when Richard Palmer State alum, who debuted on The Company, have maintained his legacy Smart left the Parker Ranch, complete Land Report 100 in 2013, continues to add with the family cattle business. with his art collection, to a trust to support to his acreage. While the vast majority of charitable beneficiaries in Waimea. Much of his land can be found in Wyoming along Crosby Family Parker Ranch’s 130,000 acres is grazing land. the Laramie Range (the site of Wagonhound’s 82| 135,000 acres Over the last 160 years, extensive infrastruc- respected cattle and registered Quarter With long-held interests in forestry and ture has been built, including 850 miles of Horse program), he also has holdings in mineral management, the New Orleans- fence, 300 paddocks, and 15 corrals; 650 Montana and California. based Crosby clan owns land in Allen, water troughs, 175 miles of pipeline, 145 Beauregard, Calcasieu, Rapides, and Vernon water tanks, three dams, and three large Stefan Soloviev parishes, all located in Western . In reservoirs water the ranch. The ranch owns 78| 141,700 acres 2014, six former Subchapter S corporations 26,000 head of cattle, mainly Angus and Cattle. Corn. Canola. Wheat. Wind Farms. merged into a single umbrella entity called Charolais. At any given time, 17,000 are Plus drought-tolerant seeds. Soloviev’s Crosby Companies. pastured; the remainder are on the mainland.

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No. 86

There’s no denying that the Reeses love to be on their land. BRAD REESE BRAD

Reese Family Livestock runs a cow-calf operation, and the she’s credited with creating the recipe for its 86| 129,600 acres up 7,400 acres family also upholds a tradition of conscien- famous lip balm in 1991), Quimby set about Last year, the family marked a century of tious wildlife management, including mule buying up huge tracts of timberland around ranching at its Rockin’ 7 Ranch in Wyoming, deer, pronghorn, and elk. Maine’s Mount Katahdin with an eye to a although they didn’t slow down operations legacy of conservation. long enough to celebrate. One hundred and | Brite Heirs one years ago, the original homestead stood 88 125,000 acres Moursund Family at 320 acres. With the recent acquisition of The Marfa Plateau called to patriarch Luke 92| 115,000 acres the 7,400-acre Rabbit Ear Ranch, the Reeses Brite, who wisely leased all available water to What do Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, and now run over 129,000 acres. Brad Reese sustain what quickly grew into the region’s South Dakota have in common? The Mour- notes the family has run beef cattle on its largest cattle operation more than a century sunds have working ranchland in each. Will land since 1914. The hunting opportunities ago. His descendants never left those lands, Stribling Moursund and Mary Moursund are just as impressive. working tirelessly to raise the Hereford cattle Reagor oversee operations jointly, continuing so well suited to life in the Highlands. a tradition that’s generations old — on both | Davis Heirs sides of the family. 87 127,500 acres | Milliken Family At the foot of New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo 90 119,509 acres | Frank VanderSloot Mountains sprawls the CS Cattle Company Armed with a degree from Harvard, Roger 93 113,500 acres up 3,000 acres Ranch, which the family has owned and run Milliken Jr. joined his family’s Maine-based VanderSloot is the founder of the interna- since 1873. Since the death of Les Davis in Baskahegan Company, a timber management tional wellness company Melaleuca, which 2001, his widow, Linda, and their six children firm, and proceeded to steer the business sells environmentally friendly nutritional (each of whom returned to the ranch after toward conservation and sustainability, his supplements among other products. He college) continue to manage the family twin personal passions. also founded Riverbend Ranch in Idaho. cattle and quarter horse program. The ranch has built a solid reputation for its Roxanne Quimby purebred Black Angus, with a highly ranked Booth Family 91| 119,000 acres seedstock operation. VanderSloot’s Fort 88| 125,000 acres After making her fortune off lotions and po- Ranch in Utah has become known for its Not only does Wyoming’s Booth Land and tions (as cofounder of the Burt's Bees brand, outstanding Quarter Horses.

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Clayton and Modesta Williams Butler Heirs 94| 112,042 acres 99| 101,315 acres In March, these Midland mainstays (he ran The Butler’s Fort Union Ranch, which dates against Ann Richards for Texas governor in back to 1885, has been stewarded by the 1990; she designed the 183-acre Claydesta family for six generations since its founding Plaza) were awarded the Texas A&M Foun- by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler. dation’s highest honor thanks in part to their While serving in Congress, Butler met multimillion-dollar gift, which helped fund Thomas Benton Catron, a lawyer who would the Clayton Williams Jr. Alumni Center. later serve as the first federal senator from New Mexico. Catron was the largest Stan Harper landowner in the West at the time, having 95| 111,877 acres bought several Mexican land grants. Soon, A longtime proponent of black baldies (a Butler and his son-in-law, Adelbert Ames, Hereford-Angus cross), Harper maintains began to purchase interests in the Mora a significant presence in his native New Grant. Butler held his land interests in the Mexico at Wagon Mound as well as at his Union Land and Grazing Company, which he Texas ranch near Venus. His operation also established in 1885. The Fort Union Ranch, runs Quarter Horses and bison. now a 95,315-acre working cattle ranch near Watrous, is crossed by traces of the Santa Fe Linnebur Heirs Trail and surrounds the Fort Union National 96| 110,000 acres Monument. It also borders the Rio Mora With a deep and abiding affection for the National Wildlife Refuge. The Fort Union Colorado terrain, the Linnebur family heirs Ranch is managed by five directors, all continue to flourish on lands near Byers, descendants of Maj. Gen. Butler. some 45 miles west of Denver. Gene Linnebur runs Grain & Buffalo, a wholesale Beggs Family grain dealer in Arapahoe County. 100| 100,000 acres The fourth generation of the family oversees Luther King Beggs Cattle Co., which was established in 97| 108,000 acres 1876. It includes a trio of ranches that spans This native Texan founded Luther King seven counties in the Lone Star State that Capital Management in 1979. He maintains raise cattle and Quarter Horses. the Circle X Land & Cattle Co., a Brangus cattle operation based near Bryan, as well Powell Family as the 4K Land & Cattle Co., a well-managed 100| 100,000 acres Hill Country ranch rife with whitetailed The fourth generation of the family now deer, axis deer, blackbuck antelope, sika oversees Powell Ranches in three counties deer, feral hogs, and other native fauna. in Texas and Nebraska. Respected rancher James “Jimmy” Powell and his wife, Nancy, Robinson Family have turned the reins over to their daughters 98| 103,000 acres Lorrie Uhl and Victoria Johnson. In 1864, ancestors of brothers Bruce and Keith Robinson purchased the Hawaiian Yates Family island of Ni’ihau — an enclave so insular that 100| 100,000 acres its nickname is “the forbidden isle.” Today, Located in the foothills of Sangre de Cristo the few visitors who are allowed on Ni’ihau Mountains in Northern New Mexico, the can still hear the native language spoken historic Ojo Feliz Ranch is owned by the almost as often as English. Residents of this Yates family. They also own Yates Petroleum, 69.5-square-mile paradise work on the which was founded by Martin Yates in the clan’s sheep and cattle ranch while taking early 1920s and is recognized as one of the steps to keep the island’s environment oldest and largest oil and gas producers in utterly pristine. the Land of Enchantment.

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