Corner crossing (land question)

Buffalo Fishhead wrote:

How are you finding the exact corner where public land corners with public land?

If you don’t know or can’t find the exact corner wouldn’t there be a very good chance you would step on private land while crossing?

Buffalo Fishhead

1400 school kids cross my corner by my house by a few feet illegally , so does everyone’s dog stepping on my lawn for 20 seconds . What’s the difference if you’re off the corner by 1 foot passing through public to public .

Fwiw – I’ve hunted out west and corner crossed . The survey stakes are hammered in the ground and actually pretty easy to find .

2 hour meat eater podcast on this subject right now . WY lawyer in the case won and said in the future essentially they don’t have a leg to stand on .

isu22andy wrote:

1400 school kids cross my corner by my house by a few feet illegally , so does everyone’s dog stepping on my lawn for 20 seconds . What’s the difference if you’re off the corner by 1 foot passing through public to public .

Fwiw – I’ve hunted out west and corner crossed . The survey stakes are hammered in the ground and actually pretty easy to find .

I agree, trespassing is trespassing. Better to be safe than sorry. If you don’t know, don’t do it. Also, the OP didn’t state what he was hunting either. If you are upland hunting and have a dog with, that compounds the problem.

I’ve never encountered this corner to corner issue. But the boundaries of properties I hunt generally have some sort barrier like a fence, field edge, ditch, tree line, rock pile, etc.

isu22andy wrote:

1400 school kids cross my corner by my house by a few feet illegally , so does everyone’s dog stepping on my lawn for 20 seconds
.

I think the issue there is whatever your cities easement is from the road onto your property applies. Also i doubt its posted so it wouldnt be tresspass anyway. Not that im by anymeans starting an argument it seems we are on the same side of this. Just listened to that podcast.

isu22andy wrote:

WY lawyer in the case won and said in the future essentially they don’t have a leg to stand on

which side won? sorry – wasn’t totally clear from your post

The corner crossers “won”, but the ranch owner is appealing.

Crossers won – now Ranch owners are suing civilly because it devalues there ranch .

Buffalo Fishhead wrote:

How are you finding the exact corner where public land corners with public land?

If you don’t know or can’t find the exact corner wouldn’t there be a very good chance you would step on private land while crossing?

Buffalo Fishhead

Global Positioning System.
I don’t know anybody who hunts public land that doesn’t use OnX or something similar anymore. It’s great technology for us to know where we are and were property lines are at all times.

isu22andy wrote:

Crossers won – now Ranch owners are suing civilly because it devalues there ranch .

My understanding is ranch owner lost the civil suit.
He listened to a realtor that no one could access the public areas making his land worth more because he was the only one that could access all the acreage. Basically found out the hard way he didn’t do enough homework.

You hit the nail on the head. Rich people buying private land and get a lot of public land in the sale. There is a reason for this, they have the money and influence to make public private. It should never be an issue but money talks

https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/public-lands-and-waters/what-the-wyoming-corner-crossing-verdict-means-for-hunters

The civil lawsuit is in appeal with Wyoming 10th Circuit Court as of August 25th, 2023. The initial court ruling is in favor of the 4 Missouri hunters.

MX1825 wrote:

The civil lawsuit is in appeal with Wyoming 10th Circuit Court as of August 25th, 2023. The initial court ruling is in favor of the 4 Missouri hunters.

Thanks for the update, gonna be interesting to see how turns out.

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Thanks for the update, gonna be interesting to see how turns out.
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Hope the entitled rich dude from North Carolina looses.

The NC landowner claims his ranch lost 7.75 million in value by the corner crossing hunters being able to access public land.

That was one of the most frustrating parts about hunting in Montana, State land that we couldn’t access because of the corner crossing deal. Find a herd of elk only to not be able to access the state land they were near. Hopefully the WY case turns the tables in the hunters favor in this case but other States as well

In heavy woods or swampy areas … traversing the actual corners in MN can be difficult if not impossible.

Look at a state like WY. Many areas are actually a checkerboard of private and public land. Corner hopping allows one to move about without getting required permission from the nextdoor private landowners. Easements largely do not exist. That said this is still a lot of walking … each square on the checkerboard map is a square mile.

It was a great landmark case where landowners have had way too much control for too long. I would say the Feds could end it by saying no rancher can lease Fed land if they prevent access to Fed land within their property lines. They do not have to allow hunting on their property, but must allow hunters to access public land.

grubson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Buffalo Fishhead wrote:</div>
How are you finding the exact corner where public land corners with public land?

If you don’t know or can’t find the exact corner wouldn’t there be a very good chance you would step on private land while crossing?

Buffalo Fishhead

Global Positioning System.
I don’t know anybody who hunts public land that doesn’t use OnX or something similar anymore. It’s great technology for us to know where we are and were property lines are at all times.

The problem is those GPS devices like OnX (and similar programs) do not have the precision to find the exact corner of the properties that is required to step from one public land parcel to the other public land parcel. Those programs can be a few to several feet off.

In some cases the corners have a USGS brass cap that marks the corner, but in other cases no USGS marker was placed at the property corners. Where there are no brass caps marking the corners of public lands you are really only guessing where the exact corner is.

Buffalo Fishhead