Why It Matters: The western states have been long celebrated by the outdoor community as being a mecca for outdoor recreational opportunity thanks in part to the vast amounts of state and federal land open to the public. Over time some states have become segmented into a patchwork of public and private land. This leads to some tensions between public land users and private landowners at the corners where these lands intersect. These tensions boiled up to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals which recently published its opinion on the debate, upholding a practice known as “corner crossing” in that region.
Highlights:
- The checkerboard nature of property holdings in western states has created a patchwork of disjointed public lands in a way that can lead to disputes between public land users and neighboring private landowners, who are vital partners for overall wildlife and recreational management efforts.
- The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed that corner crossing is a legal method of accessing public land parcels in that area.
On March 18, 2025, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals published its decision on appellate case 23-8043 between a private land holding and a group of hunters. Utilizing illustrations and a historical breakdown to describe the ways in which the private properties are enmeshed with state and federal public lands, the ruling explains how this checkerboard was created. During the early settlement of the western United States, the United States Congress created a checkerboard of land grants in areas surrounding proposed railroad routes as it worked to encourage western expansion. Congress granted odd numbered squares to railroad companies, corresponding with each mile of railroad track that was laid, while maintaining the even-numbered squares for the federal government. As properties have bought and sold over time the patchwork of public lands became further isolated, eventually leading to this access dispute in Carbon County, WY.
This complicated and long disputed access issue has been a common debate within the outdoor recreation community and has worked its way into common conversation, appellate courts, the WY Attorney General’s Office, and the state legislature. During the 2025 legislative session in Wyoming, House bill 0099 was introduced and aimed at providing an exemption for corner crossing. While this bill did not move through the full legislature, it did serve as a conversation point and an opportunity to share information about the benefits of federal land hunting and angling access as well as public access to private lands
Private landowners are a valuable component in overall wildlife and habitat management and can be great partners for recreational access through partnerships like the hunter landowner assistance program in Wyoming. The corner crossing court case and bills like HB 0099 can bring the wide variety of stakeholders to the table for proactive and creative solutions.
