No. 1 John Malone
2,200,000 acres
Britain’s Daily Mail was flabbergasted — and rightly so. The amount of
acreage owned by Liberty Media’s Chairman John Malone is beyond the
comprehension of city slickers, suburban dwellers, and even plain country folk.
As the Mail put it, the 71-year-old’s holdings are “just under the size of the
Middle Eastern country Jordan and just over the size of Serbia. That means the
total sum of Mr. Malone’s land is nearly three Rhode Islands. Or two Delawares.
It is the size of 151 Manhattan islands. It’s a lot of land.”
Most of the ink devoted to this Connecticut native
follows the developments at Liberty, which Malone has shepherded from its
infancy as a minor spin-off of Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) in 1991 to a major
media holding company whose wide-ranging interests include the Atlanta Braves
and Starz.
Malone’s track record as a landowner has followed a similar arc. Over the
last two decades, it too has ascended sharply. Out west, Malone’s Silver Spur
Ranches are headquartered in Encampment, Wyoming. The ranches themselves are in
Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico.
The most famous is the Bell Ranch, a 290,100-acre
cattle kingdom whose roots go back to the 1824 Montoya Land Grant. Malone
acquired The Bell from Chicago’s Lane family in 2010.
In 2011, he acquired 1 million acres in Maine and New Hampshire from GMO
Renewables. His timing was spot-on. Thanks to an anemic housing market,
timberland prices were in a trough. Now that the U.S. housing market is showing
signs of life, there’s no telling how much these holdings have appreciated.
THE FULL LIST: AMERICA’S TOP 100 LANDOWNERS 2012
1. John Malone
2. Ted Turner
3. Emmerson Family
4. Brad Kelley
5.
Irving Family
6. Singleton Family
7. King Ranch Heirs
8. Pingree
Heirs
9. Reed Family
10. Stan Kroenke
11. Ford Family
12. Lykes
Bros. Heirs
13. Briscoe Family
14. W.T. Waggoner Estate
15. D.M.
O’Connor Heirs
16. Phillip Anschutz
17. Drummond Family
18. Simplot
Family
19. Robert Earl Holding
20. Malone Mitchell 3rd
21. Hughes
Family
22. Collins Family
23. Patrick Broe
24. Nunley Family
25.
Flitner Family
26. Jeff Bezos
27. Collier Family
28. H. L. Kokernot
Heirs
29. Anne Marion
30. Babbitt Heirs
31. Lyda Family
32. Jones
Family
32. True Family
34. Mike Smith
35. Reynolds Family
36. Paul
Fireman
37. D.K. Boyd
38. The Koch Family
39. McCoy & Remme
Families
40. Llano Partners
41. Homer Scott Heirs
42. Louis Moore
Bacon
43. Roxana Hayne & Joan Kelleher
44. Cassidy Heirs
45. Killam
Family
46. East Wildlife Foundation
46. Eugene Gabrych
46. Langdale
Family
49. Bogle Family
50. Hunt Family
51. Tim Blixseth
52.
Bidegain Family
52. Williams Family
54. Robert Funk
55. Russell
Gordy
56. Broadbent Family
56. Irwin Heirs
58. Sugg Family
59.
Fasken Family
60. Benjy Griffith III
61. Mike Mechenbier
62. Cogdell
Family
63. Fanjul Family
64. Hearst Family
65. Ellison Family
66.
Bass Family
66. Emily Garvey Bonavia
66. Boswell Family
66. Eddy
Family
66. William Henry Green Heirs
66. J. Luther King Jr. & Frank
King
72. David Murdock
73. Wells Family
74. L-A-D Foundation
75.
Gerald J. Ford
76. Thomas Lane Family
76. Harrison Family
78. Isaac
Ellwood Heirs
78. JA Ranch Heirs
78. Monahan Family
81. Les Davis
Heirs
82. Booth Family
82. Brite Ranch Heirs
82. Stefan Soloview
85.
Milliken Family
86. Roxanne Quimby
87. Reese Family
88. Moursund
Family
89. Scharbauer Family
90. Clayton and Modesta Williams Jr.
91.
Stan Harper
92. Frank VanderSloot
93. Richard and Victoria Evans
93.
Linnebur Family
95. Moore Family
96. Robinson Family
97. Beggs
Family
97. Powell Heirs
97. Walter Umphrey
97. Yates Family
