Corner crossing

Corner crossing is the act of stepping from one parcel of public land to another at the intersection (or "corner") of two public parcels that are diagonally adjacent, without setting foot on the private land that borders them. This situation frequently arises in checkerboarded land. While no private land is physically touched, the legality is disputed in the U.S. because it may involve crossing private airspace.

A graphic depicting corner crossing

A map of the legality of corner crossing by US state.

If corner crossing is illegal, some public lands are necessarily landlocked and hence inaccessible.^[1] There are 8.3 million acres of public land across 11 states that would be inaccessible without corner crossing.^[2]

Legality

In 2017, a Montana house bill to criminalize corner crossing failed.^[2][3]

In 2021, hunters in Wyoming were charged with trespassing on private land they never actually set foot on when they crossed between two parcels of public land at the corner where they touched.^[4] Landowners allege their airspace was violated. A jury found the hunters not guilty, but a civil lawsuit was also filed by the landowners.^[5] This civil lawsuit was escalated U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit,^[6] and in 2025, the court sided unanimously against the land owners. As a result, precedent was set deeming corner crossing to be legal in the circuit's 6 states: Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma and Kansas.^[7] The ruling has nuance: the court “interpreted the UIA to allow corner-crossing if access to public lands is otherwise restricted,” meaning that corner crossing when there is another path to the public land still exists in a legal grey area.^[8] The landowner has signaled intent to take the case to the Supreme Court. If the court sees the case and rules in favour of the hunters, then corner crossing would become legal across the entire US.^[9]