TUESDAY – May 26, 2026 |
Photo – Corner Crossing image – Courtesy document from US Supreme Court
Montana lawmakers say Wyoming’s Elk Mountain corner‑crossing ruling does not make the practice legal in their state.
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln estimates that 2.44 million acres of Wyoming public land are considered “corner‑locked” and cannot be reached without corner crossing.
In 2021, a group of four Missouri hunters used a ladder to corner cross from one parcel of federal land to another on Elk Mountain. The adjacent private landowner later sued them for trespassing, arguing they violated his airspace despite never stepping on his property. The Carbon County Sheriff’s Office initially declined to cite the hunters, but the county prosecutor ultimately filed criminal trespass charges.
A Carbon County jury ruled in favor of the hunters. Attorneys for the private landowner then brought the case before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. In March of 2025, the judges upheld the lower court’s decision, citing the 1885 Unlawful Inclosures Act, which prohibits private landowners from blocking access to federal public lands in checkerboard regions. Since that time, Wyoming law enforcement officers have been directed to follow the 10th Circuit Court’s finding that corner crossing is legal when done at the corners of two public parcels without touching the adjacent private land.
The Elk Mountain landowner’s attorneys petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the corner‑crossing dispute, but the justices refused to take the case.
Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature attempted to codify the 10th Circuit’s ruling into state law through House Bill 19. However, resistance from private landowner groups, including the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, and disagreements over when and where corner crossing can occur effectively killed the bill.
Because of the 10th Circuit Court’s decision, Wyoming considers corner crossing between federal parcels legal when no other access is available and the crossing occurs without contacting adjacent private land.
That is not the case for our northern neighbor. During the May 13th meeting of the Montana Environmental Quality Council, Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras gave a corner crossing presentation to the council members. Lieutenant Governor Juras explained that the Montana Supreme Court places the highest value on a landowner’s right to exclude, ranking it above the rights to possess, use, or sell their property.
Lieutenant Governor Juras said the United States historically used a “Heaven to Hell” standard to define how far a landowner’s rights extended above and below the surface. The invention of the airplane forced the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify the upper limit of those property rights. Juras said the court held that a landowner’s control extends to a reasonable buffer above the trees and buildings on their property.
Lieutenant Governor Juras said states have the right to determine the buffer, adding that the Montana legislature recently created a law prohibiting drones from flying lower than 200 feet over private property.
Juras clarified that Montana falls under the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which, in the early 1900s, held that landowners do not violate the 1885 Unlawful Inclosures Act when their fences join at the corners of their properties.
Without overturning the 9th Circuit Court’s opinion, the lieutenant governor said Montana will continue to consider corner crossing as trespassing, even if the individual did not physically touch private property during the act.
Following the lieutenant governor’s presentation, Representative Joshua Seckinger asked if Montana leadership’s objective was to make corner crossing so restrictive that a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling becomes inevitable.
Lieutenant Governor Juras replied that the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Department has no intention of changing existing laws regarding corner crossing.
In order to make corner crossing legal in Montana, Juras said the state would need to financially compensate landowners for the loss of control over the airspace above their properties.
Here in Carbon County, Sheriff Alex Bakken has stated that his department will follow the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling and asked both sportsmen and landowners to be respectful of one another.
