Everything’s bigger in Texas, but who are the biggest landowners in the Lone Star state?
Texas Pacific Land Corporation took the top spot in the Land Report’s annual ranking of the top 10 Texas landowners. The company owns 873,000 acres, 5 more than last year, when it was second on The Land Report’s list. Texas Pacific has land, water and energy holdings throughout Texas.
The company formed out of a trust that held 3.5 million acres, after the first company went bankrupt at the turn of the 20th century. The government tasked it with building a transcontinental railroad in the 1870s.
King Ranch Heirs was second on the list with 836,000 acres. That’s the same amount it held the year before, when it was third in the ranking. The historic ranch developed the first official new breed of beef cattle in the country, according to the ranch’s website.
Falling to No. 5 in the ranking, after placing first last year, was Brad Kelley. He held 586,000 acres in Texas this year, after selling the 354,000-acre Brewster Ranch in West Texas in October, according to the Land Report. His acreage fell by about 38 percent year over year — the most among the top 10 Texas landowners.
Kelley is one of the largest private landowners in the country, with ranches in Texas, Florida and New Mexico. He made his vast fortune in the tobacco industry.
Half of the top 10 Texas land owners are those that have purchased properties over the past couple of decades. Other Texan landowners who bought property mostly in the 21st century include billionaire real estate magnate Stan Kroenke and Amazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos.
Among the landowners who were made the top-10 list both years, Mike Smith’s acreage grew the most, by 1.3 percent. In both years, Smith, who founded Mike Smith Group of Feed Yards, was 10th in the rankings.
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