Each year, The Land Report documents the biggest landowners in America.

To make it into the top 10 for the most recent year, you'd have to own nearly 1 million acres.

No. 1 on the list, the Emmerson family, accumulated their wealth through the lumber business.

Family owned and run Sierra Pacific Industries is the largest private lumber production firm in the nation, according to Forbes.

1. Emmerson family

• Land area: 2,411,000 acres

The Emmerson family owns and operates Sierra Pacific Industries, a company that logs usable lumber after forest fires and sells it to lumber retailers. Through Sierra Pacific, the family owns some 2.4 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington.

2. John Malone

• Land area: 2,200,000 acres

• Roughly equal to: About the size of Yellowstone National Park

John Malone is the largest private landowner in the United States. Malone made his fortune as a media tycoon, building the company Tele-Communications, Inc, or TCI, and acting as its CEO before selling it to AT&T for $50 billion in 1999. Malone's 2.2 million acres are largely located in Maine, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming and include profitable cattle ranches.

3. Ted Turner

• Land area: 2,000,000 acres

• Roughly equal to: About a third of Vermont

CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo – the largest private bison herd in the world.

Ref:  15 million acres and counting: These tycoons, families are the largest landowners in the US  (usatoday)