We’ve got three of the ten most populous cities in the U.S., and Houston, TX, is inside the top five. From the rolling hills around Austin, TX, to the dusty towns out west, Texas is sprawling.
Texas is massive and surprisingly is mostly privately owned. Did you know that? Texas is nearly 95% privately owned. It’s true, Texas is home to some of the largest properties for cattle ranching in the U.S. Just for comparison, Nevada is 80% owned by the government.
Who Owns the Most Land in Texas?
Do you know who owns the most farmland in the United States? The answer is Bill Gates. The Microsoft co-founder owns the most farmland in the United States, reportedly, around 270,000 acres.
But to Ted Turner, Gates’s lil farm is more like a tiny lot on the corner of a diminutive dead-end street. Turner, the second-largest individual landowner in North America, owns approximately two million acres of personal and ranch land. He owns land in eight U.S. states and Argentina.
So who’s number one in the country? The title of the largest landowners in the United States goes to the Emmerson family. The family owns more than 2,330,000 acres of land, the bulk of which is dedicated to timber in Northern California.
One More Fun Fact Before We Find Out Who Owns Most of Texas
Did you know that the largest landowner in the world is King Charles III of England? He and the British Royal Family own more than 6,600,000,000 acres of land around the world. That amounts to approximately 1/6 of the surface of the planet.
Ok, time to get back to where we started, the Lone Star State. Let’s dive into it. According to Farm Land Riches, here are the Top 10 Largest Landowners In The State Of Texas:
The Top 10 Largest Landowners in The State Of Texas