Corner Crossing Is Legal in Six States: What It Means
Corner crossing — stepping from one piece of public land to another at the point where two corners touch, without setting foot on the private ground either side — is legal across the six states of the Tenth Circuit. The Supreme Court declined to hear the landowner’s appeal on 20 October 2025, which left the Tenth Circuit’s March 2025 ruling standing and opened an estimated 3.5 million acres of public land that had been corner-locked for a century.
What corner crossing actually is
Out West, huge blocks of land are laid out in a checkerboard: alternating square-mile sections of public and private ground, a leftover of the railroad grants of the 1860s. On a map it looks like a chessboard. Two public squares meet at a single point, and two private squares meet at that same point. Step diagonally across that point and you have gone from public land to public land without touching private soil — but you have passed through the airspace above private ground, and that airspace is what the fight was about.
Millions of acres of public land are landlocked this way. No road reaches them, no trail, no easement. The only way in on foot is the corner.
The case that settled it
Four hunters from Missouri crossed a corner in the Elk Mountain checkerboard of Carbon County, Wyoming, in 2020 and 2021 to reach BLM parcels. The landowner, Iron Bar Holdings, had chained signposts together across the corner. The hunters were charged with criminal trespass and acquitted. The landowner then sued them in civil court for $7.75 million.
- District court, Wyoming: summary judgment for the hunters. Crossing on foot, corner to corner, without touching the surface of private land and without damaging anything, is not trespass. The chain across the corner was itself an unlawful inclosure of public land under the Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885.
- Tenth Circuit, 18 March 2025: unanimous affirmation. The court read the Unlawful Inclosures Act broadly, holding that even a non-physical barrier — signage, for example — can amount to an inclosure of public land.
- Supreme Court, 20 October 2025: certiorari denied. The Tenth Circuit ruling stands.
The University of Wyoming’s Center for Land and Water Law has a plain reading of what the decision did to the Unlawful Inclosures Act, and it is worth reading before you plan a trip around it.
Where corner crossing is legal now
The Tenth Circuit covers six states, and the ruling is binding in all of them:
| Covered by the ruling | Not covered |
|---|---|
| Colorado | Montana |
| Kansas | Idaho |
| New Mexico | Nevada |
| Oklahoma | Arizona |
| Utah | Oregon, Washington, California |
| Wyoming | the Dakotas, Nebraska |
Outside those six states the question is still open. A ruling from one circuit does not bind another, so a corner crossing in Montana or Idaho is legally untested ground — the reasoning is persuasive, not controlling, and a county attorney is free to disagree with it. Montana’s legislature has already had the argument on its calendar.
How to stay inside the ruling
The decision is narrow, and the lawyers who won it are the first to say so. Stay inside these lines:
- On foot. The case was about people stepping across. Driving across, or crossing on horseback or a UTV, is not what the court blessed.
- At the corner, not near it. Cross at the survey point itself. A cut across the edge of a private section is ordinary trespass in every state.
- Touch nothing. No hand on the fence, no foot on the private surface, no ladder leaned against a post. The hunters in the case used a step ladder set on public ground on each side, and the courts had no problem with it.
- Point A to point B. Cross to get somewhere. Do not linger, do not hunt from the corner, do not use the crossing as an excuse to be on the line.
- Know exactly where the corner is. A GPS mapping app with land ownership layers is not optional here. Twenty feet of error is the difference between a legal crossing and a trespass charge.
What is still risky
A ruling does not stop a confrontation. Landowners in checkerboard country have been fighting this for decades and some of them will still call the sheriff. Expect to be filmed, expect to be questioned, and be able to show on your phone exactly where you crossed. Carry the map. Be polite. The four hunters in Wyoming won, but it took them four years and a legal defence fund to do it.
Corner crossing questions
Is corner crossing legal in 2026?
Yes in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming, where the Tenth Circuit’s ruling binds. Elsewhere it is unsettled — not clearly legal, not clearly illegal, and decided county by county until another circuit rules.
How much land does this open up?
Roughly 3.5 million acres of public land that was corner-locked and effectively unreachable before the ruling.
Can I drive across a corner?
No. The ruling covers crossing on foot. Vehicles, horses and machines are outside what the court decided.
What is the Unlawful Inclosures Act?
An 1885 federal law that bars anyone from fencing off or obstructing public land. It is the law the courts leaned on: a chain, a fence or even signage placed to stop lawful passage to public land can be an unlawful inclosure.
Do I need a ladder to corner cross?
Not legally, but it helps you stay honest. A step ladder placed on public ground on each side of the corner lets you cross without touching the fence or the private surface, which is exactly the record the Wyoming hunters built.
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I read the article and now I’m a little confused, namely- if the law allowing access to public lands has been on the books for over a century, why were law enforcement even responding, and why were the hunters sited, let alone arrested? This all goes back to the fact that “law enforcement” is somehow not required to know the laws they’re supposedly enforcing, but private citizens are. How did this get so far as to make it into a courtroom? Several people dropped the ball on this one, including law enforcement and the land owner. If it were me, I’d be suing the land owner and law enforcement for a lot more than legal fees. I’d make it so financially painful for both so that something like this NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. Unbelievable that it made all the way to court.
All states already have in place a legal means to gain access for a “landlocked” owner across some one else land as an easement. Access to public lands should be no different. According to the UIA, a land owner must allow access by some means to a land locked parcel, either by corner access or a more convenient place that they could choose. Whoever issued this citation doesn’t know the law, and exceeded their authority.
What about the right of the land owner to have the quiet enjoyment of their lands? If I put up.a gate to keep out off road vehicles and others who think that they have access to my posted lands, and said road is on my property, is this not essentially taking that land without compensation? Additionally, what protection do I have in terms of liability if someone gets hurt ? This why gates are put up.
not your land is not your land and you can’t prevent people from accessing it.
ALL of this should have disclosed when you bought said property. If you inherited it, then you as the property owner should have hired an attorney and a Surveyor in this field to define your lands.
Property boundaries are Public knowledge, there is no excuse for NOT knowing your lands, and any and all right of access on or bordering your lands.
I have dealt with private owners trying to bully me on Boundary’s, it’s annoying and often selfish on their part.
Every county, city, town, parrish, state or whatever, has easements for your property. If they need to replace main water lines that run under your property they can dig them up. If they upgrade electrical lines or fiber optic cable underground they can trench right thru your land. You do raise a valid concern tho about the liability. I’d get in touch with an attorney
I respect your concerns and do believe as a hunter I should know both boundaries of public/ private and be in contact with private to ask permission of opening gate for access. If not granted then it could lead to legal issues or possibly another access point ???
So, how in the hell could they 1) be trespassing; 2) how were they reported and charged/prosecuted and 3) why did it even go to trial let alone become so expensive!?!?!?
That is our legal system. The government can pass into law bills that are in violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and be in effect until some advocacy group files a suit and have a judge determine Constitutionality and toss.. It appears law enforcement can be ignorant of the laws, write the citation and let the judge settle it. Those a classic liberal practices.
Win this case then go after the road closures that plague montana, many landowners just put up a gate and post the road as private!