Who Is The Largest Landowner In The State Of Ohio?

Ohio is the 34th largest state by area.

Comprised of 44,825 square miles the State of Ohio claims the land is rich in gypsum, gold, hematite, salt, as well as coal, clay, and sandstone. Clearly, there are plenty of riches to be discovered in the Buckeye State-- so who gets to reap the rewards?

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Local Landowners?

A-Z Animals seems to be the authority on this topic, having uncovered the top 3 landowners in each state in the nation. While analyzing this data you can't but help notice a disappointing albeit unsurprising pattern: most of these private landowners don't even live there!

For example, when it comes to farmland and foreign ownership in Michigan experts at Michigan State say,

The Netherlands is the largest owner in Michigan at 458,436 acres followed by Canada at 359,679 acres. These two countries account for 59.7 percent of all foreign ownership.

What's Michigan got that The Netherlands doesn't, I wonder?

Largest Landowner In Ohio

When it comes to the Buckeye State A-Z Animals says Virginia-based non-profit The Nature Conservancy is the 3rd largest private landowner with 1,000 acres and non-other than Bill Gates is the 2nd largest landowner in Ohio with 9,000 acres.

What is Bill Gates doing in Ohio? Hopefully creating a giant solar farm, that is, if all goes well at the next hearing in Madison County on March 21!

You probably won't be surprised to hear that the largest private landowner in Ohio is actually a timber company. 

Founded in 2005 the major wood supplier based in the Dayton-area has managed nearly 900,000 acres of woodlands across Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee. Today A-Z Animals writes,

With over 150,000 acres of land, Escanaba Timber, LLC is Ohio’s largest private land owner. Escanaba Timber LLC... is a paper and forest products firm in Dayton, OH. The corporation makes and distributes furniture and other wood items in the United States.