Cameron Boswell is the vice president of administration for the J.G. Boswell Co. He is the fourth generation of a farming family that is the 81st largest landowner in the U.S. Valley Children's screen grab

Three landowners with Central Valley ties rank among America’s 100 largest private landowners, according to The Land Report’s annual survey released Jan. 13.

The Boswell Family placed 81st with 207,000 acres, Stewart and Lynda Resnick ranked 88th with 196,775 acres and the heirs of Dr. Henry Singleton came in at 97th with 171,000 acres following a massive land sale that reshaped the national rankings.

Boswell Family

Central California titan J.G. Boswell founded his eponymous company in 1925. Today, the ultra-private family focuses on tomatoes, controlling its homegrown supply from seed through the processing plant. The Boswells rank as the largest producers of tomatoes in the world. The family farms also yield extra-long staple pima cotton, prized for its strength and sheen, according to The Land Report.

An analysis of property records by the San Francisco Chronicle found in 2022 that J.G. Boswell farms 206,000 acres in the Central Valley, making it the sixth-largest landowner in the state.

Cameron Boswell is the fourth generation of the Boswell farming family.

The Resnicks

In September, Western Growers bestowed its 2025 Award of Honor on Stewart Resnick for his five decades of contributions to the agricultural community via The Wonderful Company. Resnick grew up in New Jersey in modest circumstances and attended UCLA, where he earned his bachelor’s and law degrees.

 

“In 1979, he bought 1,000 acres of Kern County farmland while acquiring Paramount Citrus,” The Land Report stated. “I was going to be a passive investor, but I liked the opportunity — and the business — so I built it up,” Resnick said.

Resnick entered the pistachio market, and today Wonderful accounts for 60% of all pistachios sold in the U.S. and 40% overseas. Forays into mandarins, seedless oranges and pomegranates followed.

“Lynda was a genius with our branding, and I had a pretty good idea about sales and how to scale,” Resnick said. “I thought if we could apply that here, we could be a leader in this business and eventually dominate it. Mission accomplished.”

Singleton estate

The descendants of Henry Singleton oversee Singleton Ranches, which the co-founder of industrial conglomerate Teledyne Inc. launched in 1986 when he purchased the 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch in New Mexico’s Galisteo Basin. Singleton subsequently expanded his landholdings by acquiring numerous Spanish land grants, primarily in New Mexico but also in California.

The Singleton Trust sold the California portfolio of the family’s ranches to Diana Singleton, one of Henry and Caroline Singleton’s five children. The family’s Golden State landholdings, which totaled approximately 90,000 acres, included the Peachtree and Topo ranches in the Salinas Valley and the River Island Ranch in the Springville area in the foothills of the Sierras.

The family also sold most of its New Mexico ranches — 937,000 acres — to No. 1 U.S. landowner Stan Kroenke in December 2025. The lone exception was Dr. Singleton’s first purchase, the historic 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch, which was acquired by his son Will.

The many honors earned by Singleton Ranches include recognition by the American Quarter Horse Association with its Best Remuda Award in 2012.

National rankings

The purchase of Singleton Ranches vaulted Kroenke Ranches from No. 4 in 2025 to No. 1 in 2026 with more than 2.7 million acres, ahead of California’s Emmerson Family with 2.44 million acres, Liberty Media chairman emeritus John Malone with 2.2 million acres and CNN founder Ted Turner with 2 million acres.

 

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos ranked 21st with 462,000 acres. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates came in at No. 44 with 275,000 acres, including property in the Bakersfield area.

“Yellowstone” creator Taylor Sheridan, who owns Texas’s historic Four Sixes Ranch, ranked 49th with 267,000 acres.

The Simplot Family of Idaho ranked 24th with 443,000 acres. The family-owned J.R. Simplot Company has extensive cattle ranching and phosphate-mining interests and grows more than a dozen crops on 82,500 acres of farmland in the U.S. Founded by Jack Simplot, the company pioneered the frozen french fry. Worldwide, Simplot employs 13,000 people in more than 60 countries and operates nine Simplot Grower Solutions retail locations in the Central Valley.

Founded in 2007, The Land Report is a platform for news and insights on land ownership. The magazine’s Land Report 100 is regularly referenced by Bloomberg, Forbes, Fortune, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.