Who are the largest private landowners in Montana?
It seems like a straightforward question, but answering it isn’t as simple as sorting a spreadsheet.
The Montana State Library maintains a statewide database of property information through its Cadastral system, based on property ownership data from the Montana Department of Revenue. But the records don’t make it easy to group properties by their principal owner. A single land-owning person or entity can appear in the data under multiple personal or company names.
In other words, the state doesn’t keep an easy-to-read list of the state’s top landowners. So we built our own.
Our analysis of the data shows that Montana’s 10 largest landowners are a varied group.
The Galt family, primarily through Galt Management LLC, owned by Errol T. Galt, William W. Galt and Ben Galt, owns 71 Ranch LP and Galt Ranch, making them the largest private landowning entity in the state with a collective 347,000 acres. Galt Ranch promotes ranching operations and guided hunting services, but Galt family holdings have also been used for other ventures, including the roughly 18-megawatt Gordon Butte wind project.
Stan Kroenke founded Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, which holds stakes in seven professional sports teams and six sports stadiums across the U.S. and U.K. He is married to Walmart heiress Ann Walton Kroenke. His Montana holdings total 331,000 acres and include Broken O Land & Livestock, a 119,000-acre ranch Kroenke purchased in 2012, and the 117,000-acre PV Ranch, which he purchased in 2002, as well as several smaller properties.
Farmland Reserve’s 325,000 Montana acres are part of a much larger global agricultural portfolio. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints identifies the organization as one of three primary entities that manage the church’s financial reserves, alongside Ensign Peak Advisors and Property Reserve, neither of which is a major property owner in Montana. Farmland Reserve President Doug Rose told the LDS-affiliated publication “Church News” this year that the organization owns agricultural land in more than 30 states and nine countries. The organization describes the holdings as investments intended to preserve and grow church reserves, with many operated by the church’s taxable for-profit subsidiary AgReserves.
About 70% of the combined acreage held by the state’s ten largest landowners is primarily engaged in agriculture, while timber interests and conservation groups account for about 12% each, and mineral interests another 6%.
Green Diamond, the fourth-largest private landholder in our analysis and the only timber company in the top 10, entered northwest Montana in 2020 when it purchased 291,000 acres from Southern Pine Plantations. The company’s Montana holdings represent about 13% of the 2.21 million acres Green Diamond manages across nine U.S. states.
The state’s next three largest landowners all have their land registered with the Montana Department of Revenue as being primarily in agricultural use. The Wilks brothers, who sold their combined 70% stake in their company, Frac Tech, for $3.5 billion in 2011, are political donors and funders of conservative causes including The Daily Wire and PraegerU. Dan and Farris Wilks own 243,000 acres, making them the fifth-largest private landowners in the state. The Sunlight Ranch Company, owner of Sunlight Ranch, is close behind with 239,286 acres, and the Stockman Bank-founding Coffee-Nefsy family owns about 238,831 acres, according to our analysis.
Two entries in the top 10 are conservation organizations. The Nature Conservancy holds 158,000 acres in Montana, including large tracts east of Missoula and northwest of Fort Peck Reservoir. Much of the latter land lies near properties held by American Prairie, which owns 146,000 acres in the state. American Prairie is assembling its private holdings within a much larger landscape that includes the C.M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge and other public lands with the goal of creating a large native-grassland reserve.
Great Northern Properties, a privately held affiliate of Houston, Texas-based Natural Resource Partners, is the only entry in the top 10 primarily composed of mineral properties. According to contemporary reporting, the company acquired most of its Montana holdings from Burlington Northern in 1992 as the railroad company divested of coal-producing properties. In its most recent producer and reserve holder survey, published in 2023 using 2022 data, the National Mining Association listed Great Northern as having the second-largest coal reserves in the country, behind only the U.S. government, on its 143,000 Montana acres.
According to Montana Free Press’ analysis, the top 10 private landowners in the state collectively own about 2.5 million of Montana’s 93 million acres, or about 2.7% of the state’s total land area. Those private holdings pale in comparison to the federal government’s holdings of roughly 27 million acres, with the U.S. Forest Service accounting for about 17 million acres, and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management controlling another 8 million. The state of Montana holds about 5.7 million acres through various state agencies including Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.
This story was updated Aug. 31, 2026, to clarify the ownership structure of land held by the Galt family and the Wilks brothers.
