The U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has backed four hunters sued by a wealthy ranch owner for corner crossing on Carbon County’s Elk Mountain, preserving public access to millions of acres of federal property.
A three-judge panel ruled Tuesday that a Wyoming federal judge concluded correctly when he said that Fred Eshelman, the owner of the Elk Mountain Ranch, could not block four Missouri men from passing through the airspace of his property when they stepped from one piece of BLM land to another, without touching Eshelman’s land.
Corner crossing involves stepping from one piece of public land to another at the common corner with two pieces of private property — without touching the private land. While it stands to affect much of the American West, the practice has particular resonance in southern Wyoming where millions of acres are laid out in a “checkerboard” of alternating public and private mile-square sections.
[Fred Eshelman ] cannot implement a program which has the effect of denying access to federal public lands for lawful purposes.”
10th Circuit Court of Appeals
By blocking passage at such corners, whether by physical obstruction or threats or trespass citations issued by law enforcement, private landowners are able to enjoy exclusive access to public land.
Eshelman sued the hunters in 2022 after they corner crossed to hunt elk and deer on his 22,045-acre ranch.
The law doesn’t allow private landowners to prevent others from corner crossing in the checkerboard area of Wyoming — as long as they do not touch the private property — Wyoming Chief U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled in 2023. Federal appellate judges David M. Ebel, Timothy M. Tymkovich and Nancy Louise Moritz unanimously sided with Skavdahl’s ruling in the just-concluded appeal.
In reaching their decision, the judges relied on case law and the Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885, which prohibits blocking access in such situations.
“The western checkerboard and UIA reflect a storied period of our history,” Tymkovich wrote. “Whatever the UIA’s merits today, it—and the case law interpreting it—remain good federal law.”
“Applying that law here, [Eshelman’s landholding company] Iron Bar cannot implement a program which has the effect of ‘deny[ing] access to [federal] public lands for lawful purposes[.]’” he wrote. “So the district court was correct to hold that the Hunters could corner-cross as long as they did not physically touch Iron Bar’s land.”
The case has implications not only for the 2.4 million acres of “corner-locked” land in Wyoming, but also for 8.3 million acres across the West.
This is a breaking news story and may be updated – Ed.
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