In most of our 50 states, there is clearly a single largest landowner in each state.

New Jersey is one of a handful of states where that information is unavailable.

There are large landowners in the Garden State but narrowing it down to one in the whole state is apparently too complicated to know.

In Central Jersey, one name comes up as one of the largest landowners in that region and that is W. Bryce Thompson.

Thompson returned from military service in 1956 and started his real estate business in 1958.

He started small and grew to own about 6,500 undeveloped acres in the Princeton area as well as some improved properties as well.

Not a bad chunk of real estate in a very pricey area of a densely populated state.

Getty Stock / ThinkStock
Getty Stock / ThinkStock
loading...

While other states have large parcels of land owned by the federal government or giant farm or ranch operations, in New Jersey only 3.6% of the land is owned by the feds with the 12 federal National Parks in the state.

However, there is one large farming landowner in the southern part of the state, named William Haines Jr., who owns a 14,000 acres cranberry farm in the Pinelands.

National Park Service
National Park Service
loading...

Haines' great-grandfather started the farm operation in 1890.

If you live in South Jersey, you've seen the name Haines on roads, town names and several businesses.

Google Maps
Google Maps
loading...

Some form of the Haines family has been in Southern New Jersey for well over a hundred years.

William Haines Jr. is the fourth-generation farmer on the land, which is largest cranberry farm in New Jersey and in the top five in the country.

It's a mystery as to why there is no definitive "largest landowner" in the entire state, but after all, it is New Jersey and perhaps you'd have to dig where some people don't want you to dig to find the exact answer.

Getty Stock / ThinkStock
Getty Stock / ThinkStock
loading...

You can find the largest landowner in most other states here.

The federal government, which only owns a small portion of the land here, does own 171,956 of the 4.8 million acres in the state.

With the enormously obscene amount of property taxes we pay to own our very small piece of the state we might qualify for big acreage in most other states!

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

You can now listen to Dennis & Judi — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite best friends anytime, anywhere and any day of the week. Download the Dennis & Judi show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

Click here to contact an editor about feedback or a correction for this story.

LOOK: Here's where people in every state are moving to most

Stacker analyzed the Census Bureau's 2019 American Community Survey data to determine the three most popular destinations for people moving out of each state.

How much does the average NJ home cost? Median prices by county

Everything is costing more these days — and housing is certainly no exception in New Jersey.

Data for 2022 from January through August, compiled by New Jersey Realtors, shows that South Jersey has been seeing homes hit the market and sell in less than a month, on average.

Median prices for single-family homes have reached $500,000 and above in nine counties in North and Central Jersey.

All but two counties have seen houses go for more than the list price, on average, this year.

25 costliest hurricanes of all time

Although the full extent of damage caused by Hurricane Ian in the Southwest is still being realized, Ian is already being called one of the costliest storms to ever hit the U.S. Stacker took a look at NOAA data to extrapolate the costliest U.S. hurricanes of all time.  

LOOK: The most expensive weather and climate disasters in recent decades

Stacker ranked the most expensive climate disasters by the billions since 1980 by the total cost of all damages, adjusted for inflation, based on 2021 data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The list starts with Hurricane Sally, which caused $7.3 billion in damages in 2020, and ends with a devastating 2005 hurricane that caused $170 billion in damage and killed at least 1,833 people. Keep reading to discover the 50 of the most expensive climate disasters in recent decades in the U.S.

More From New Jersey 101.5 FM