Michigan’s Largest Landowner Isn’t Based In Michigan

Have you ever wondered just exactly who it is that owns the land we live on? If you own your own property you probably understand the importance of making sure you're adding value to it, but in general, I've always wondered who owns the most land in Michigan.

Is it someone who owns a cannabis cultivation farm, or some massive tycoon that just has a bunch of land for billionaire reasons? I went looking and the amount of private land the largest landowner has possession of is kind of crazy.

The unfortunate thing is that the company that owns the most private land is on the other side of the country. It seems kind of lame that this beautiful state in all its glory is owned by a Seattle-based company called Weyerhaeuser and this company owns 12 MILLION acres across the United States and even dipping into Canada,  according to A-Z:

In 2005, Plum Creek Timber Company, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT), bought 650,000 acres in the Upper Peninsula from Escanaba Timber LLC, previously Mead Paper, MeadWestvaco, and NewPage Corporation. As a result of the purchase, Plum Creek became Michigan’s largest private land owner.

You Only Love Me For My Wood

In 2015, Weyerhaeuser apparently paid more than $8 billion to become the owners of Plum Creek and with the purchase, Weyerhaeuser is now the largest private land owner in Michigan.

So it's very clear they only really love us for our timber and with 650,000, I'm sure they aren't struggling at all. In fact, out of the Top five land owners in Michigan, the 5th largest is the only one based in Michigan, Mickey Shapiro, who only owns 2,000 acres.