Wyoming Corner Crossing Issue Settled By Supreme Court

Corner crossing is now officially legal in Wyoming. The case is over. But is everything truly settled? Only time will tell.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Carbon County landowner’s challenge to the practice. By not hearing the case, the U.S. Supreme Court has let the lower court ruling stand.

The state of Wyoming was given a checkboard pattern that was supposed to solve a problem. But as usual, solve one problem, create several more.

In the 2021 hunting season, four hunters were cited for criminal trespass in Carbon County, Wyoming, for corner crossing. They pleaded "not guilty" and were acquitted of all criminal charges in April 2022. But then they faced $7 million in civil litigation filed by the ranch owner.

Watch this parody video below as Hank Patterson explains the problem.

The Wyoming checkerboard pattern is an alternating grid of public and private land ownership, primarily in southern Wyoming, created in the 1800s when Congress granted alternating sections of land to the Union Pacific Railroad to fund its construction.

The problem was that the pattern made a significant amount of public land "corner-locked," meaning it is only accessible by "corner-crossing" over a shared corner with private land.

Hunters and hikers would reach a corner fence and climb over the corner in an attempt to stay on public land. But in doing so, some part of their body would have to cross over private land.

The video below was posted back in 2023 and explains the case that was just settled.