Ted Turner, the media mogul who died Wednesday at 87, leaves behind roughly two million acres across 13 ranches in six states, making him one of America's largest private landowners. His Vermejo Park Ranch in northern New Mexico spans over 500,000 acres, ranking among the two largest contiguous private landholdings in the country. Turner began acquiring land in the late 1980s, an unusual move at a time when the country's biggest landowners typically made their fortunes in ranching, farming, timber or oil.

The landscape of Western land ownership has transformed dramatically since Turner's early purchases. He paid approximately $80 million for nearly 600,000 acres from Pennzoil in 1996—about $138 per acre. Today, similar ranch land in northern New Mexico sells for $700 to nearly $2,000 per acre. Other billionaires have followed suit: Stan Kroenke became America's largest private landowner late last year after acquiring 937,000 acres in New Mexico, while Bill Gates holds the largest private farmland holdings and Jeff Bezos maintains vast Texas acreage.

Turner's most enduring legacy may be his bison conservation efforts. He built the largest private herd in North America, with roughly 45,000 bison across his properties. At Vermejo, he transformed an overgrazed 1996 landscape into a sustainable ecosystem, completing a 60-mile stream restoration that revived native Rio Grande cutthroat trout. A statement on his website confirmed his lands will remain protected after his death, limiting development and parcelation.