Top Nebraska Landowner, Ted Turner, Dies at 87

by John Gage

(Photo courtesy of Turner Enterprises)

One of Nebraska’s largest landowners, CNN founder and billionaire Ted Turner, died Wednesday at the age of 87. Through one of his businesses, Turner Enterprises, the billionaire had amassed nearly 450,000 acres of Nebraska ranchland in the Sandhills.

Turner’s death follows a years-long battle with Lewy Body Dementia, one of the most common forms of diagnosed dementia.

His death will likely reopen speculation about what Turner’s eventual plans for his ranching land in Nebraska were. For years, ranchers in the Sandhills have questioned the media mogul’s intentions with buying up Nebraska land – afraid that the billionaire planned to try and take the land off the property tax rolls and raise property taxes for surrounding ranches.

In 2023, the Flatwater Free Press did an investigation where they asked Turner’s business to comment on whether they planned to continue paying property taxes on land they had given to a nonprofit institute and whether his business planned on handing over more property to the nonprofit, Turner Institute of Ecoagriculture.

“While we appreciate your tenacity and interest in our story, we must respectfully decline participation,” Phillip Evans, Turner Enterprises’ chief communications officer, said in a statement at the time.

Turner has used his ranches to help revive the buffalo population in the United States. At its low near the close of the 19th century, only 325 buffalo were left in the U.S. Now there are over 400,000, of which Turner’s ranches own around 10%.

The Plains Sentinel has reached out to Turner Enterprises for comment on the story.

— John Gage is the Executive Editor of The Plains Sentinel.