ROBB REPORT • February 9, 2026
Lately, the country’s ultrarich have been behaving like modern-day land barons, quietly assembling empires measured not just in acres but in square miles and state sizes. Owning vast swaths of land has always attracted those with the money to buy it, but the scale is accelerating among America’s wealthiest families and individuals.
• Buck Family: The heirs of Peter Buck—a nuclear physicist whose $1,000 loan helped launch the nowadays ubiquitous fast-food franchise Subway—now own about 1.32 million acres of timberland, primarily in Maine.
• Irving Family: The Canadian Irving dynasty controls 1.27 million acres in Maine—making them the state’s largest private landowners.
• Pingree Heirs: Descendants of shipping merchant David Pingree Sr. oversee an estimated 830,000 acres in Maine and New Hampshire, much of it protected under one of the largest conservation easements in the country. Managed through Seven Islands Land Company.