But who are they, exactly?

In a recent interactive story, Bloomberg matches some of the largest landowning families with some of their flagship parcels of land.

According to BBG, the top 100 private landowners own property in 39 states. Their parcels suit a number of purposes, from investment, conservation, tax benefits or simply the bragging rights that come with owning large chunks of the US.

Below, all of the land owned by this rarefied group is highlighted in green.

The top ten landowning families control an area roughly equivalent in size to the state of West Virginia.

Their names are (units in acres):

John Malone: 2.20 million
Emmerson family: 1.96 million
Ted Turner: 1.92 million
Stan Kroenke: 1.38 million
Reed family: 1.33 million
Irving family: 1.25 million
Brad Kelley: 1.15 million
Singleton family: 1.10 million
King Ranch heirs: 0.93 million
Peter Buck: 0.93 million