Can You Guess Who Owns the Most Land in New Mexico?

People don't realize it, but New Mexico has an amazing amount of land. So much so that the entire state is the 5th largest state in the United States. There's definitely more than enough land for its population of over 2 million people. But you'd be surprised who actually OWNS the most land in the Land of Enchantment.

How many landowners are there in New Mexico compared to Texas?

In Texas, there are over 142 million acres of land owned by a quarter million private landowners. In New Mexico, however, there's almost half that amount; 77 million acres of land. Over 47 million acres alone are owned by 3 huge owners.

New Mexico's Federal Government Owns 24,665,774 Acres

It probably doesn't come too much of a surprise that the Federal Government owns a good majority of the land in New Mexico; nearly a 1/3 (31.7%) of the entire state. This is shared between the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Defense & the National Park Service. Together they are the biggest landowner in New Mexico

The New Mexico State Trust Land Office Owns 22,000,000 acres

The 2nd biggest landowner for New Mexico is the NM State Land Office; they own 9 million acres of land & 13 million acres of minerals. They're mainly in charge of the oil & gas companies operating in the state, renewable resources & agriculture.

These 1st two make sense but the 3rd biggest landowner came as a surprise for me.

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Even Ted Turner owns a million acres of New Mexico Land

Yes, that image of Ted Turner was not to be funny; the founder of CNN is the 3rd largest landowner in New Mexico. Ted Turner is the owner of the Ted Turner Reserves which includes the Vermjeo Ranch, a 550,000 acre piece of land in Raton, NM.

Ted also owns the Armendaris Ranch (362,885 acres) & the Ladder Ranch (156,439 acres). Not to mention he also owns the Sierra Grande Lodge & Spa located in Truth or Consequences, NM. That's an estimated 1,069,324 acres of land.

That's definitely even more reason to treat the land with respect; you certainly wouldn't want to upset the owners of New Mexico, would you?