Colorado home to some of the nation's largest landholders

interesting article from the DP...

By Aldo Svaldi
The Denver Post
POSTED:   10/04/2013

John Malone passed Ted Turner in 2011 as the country's largest landowner. But he isn't the only Coloradan who has amassed hundreds of thousands of acres.

"Colorado has a vibrant tradition of private landownership and stewardship," said Eric O'Keefe, editor-in-chief of the Dallas-based Land Report, which this week released its annual list of the 100 largest U.S. landowners.

Spanish land grants allowed for the development of unusually large private holdings in such states as New Mexico and Colorado, and those have passed down through the years, O'Keefe said.

Malone, who made his money in the cable-TV business, has amassed 2.2 million acres. Earlier this year, he went international, purchasing the Humewood Castle in Ireland.

Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets and Colorado Avalanche, holds 848,571 acres in Wyoming and Montana, enough to rank him as the nation's eighth- largest landowner.

Phil Anschutz, the state's wealthiest resident after satellite magnate Charlie Ergen, holds 434,500 acres, which ranks 16th.

Patrick Broe at No. 22 holds 317,677 acres, the bulk of it within the Great Western Ranch in New Mexico, a fixer-upper he elevated to one of that state's premier ranches.

And there is Louis Moore Bacon, a hedge-fund manager who owns 215,990 acres, making him the nation's 43rd- largest landowner.

Also on the list are the older holdings of the Booth and Linnebur families, each on different sides of the continental divide. They rank No. 84 and No. 95 respectively.