Media mogul, Montana landowner Ted Turner dies at 87

Ted Turner, one of Montana’s largest private land owners and a media mogul best known for founding CNN, died on Wednesday in his home in Florida at the age of 87, according to a press release from Turner Enterprises.

Turner revolutionized the daily news cycle by founding CNN as the first 24-hour network, as well as many other well-known stations including TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network.

He was also known for his active ownership of the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks, his work as a philanthropist — he once donated a billion dollars to support the United Nations — his chain of Ted’s Montana Grill restaurants which feature bison burgers, and as an environmentalist dedicated to preserving land and animal species, such as his 45,000-head herd of bison.

At one point he was the largest private landowner in the United States, and Turner Enterprises has said Turner’s properties included nearly two million acres of personal and ranch land.

The 550,000-acre Vermejo Ranch in New Mexico is the largest contiguous private holding in America, and in Montana Turner’s properties included the flagship 113,000-acre Flying D Ranch south of Bozeman.