HELENA — Several people have asked MTN News if and how the U.S. Supreme Court’s action on a Wyoming corner crossing case might impact Montana. It’s a complicated topic, so first, let’s explain what corner crossing is before we get into the court case.
Montana has more than 30 million acres of public land, although more than 800,000 acres of that are locked behind private land ownership.
John Riley reports - watch the video:
Much of it is the legacy of the 1800s, when Congress approved railroad land grants that gave rail companies half of the land around railroad tracks in a checkerboard pattern, with the other half retained by the government.
Corner crossing is the act of stepping from adjoining corners of public land without stepping on the adjacent private land.
In October, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the 10th District Court of Appeals on Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape. The case stems from a land access dispute in Wyoming. In 2022, the ranch, owned by pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman, sued a group of hunters who used a ladder to corner cross onto public land that was locked in by Eshelman’s property. The suit alleged that the hunters trespassed when they passed through the airspace over the private property.
A federal district judge and the 10th District Court of Appeals agreed with the hunters, stating that nothing they did violated federal law.
Since the Supreme Court did not take the case up, the ruling effectively became case law. However, that ruling only impacts states in the 10th Circuit; Montana is in the 9th Circuit.
So, is corner crossing legal in Montana? It’s complicated.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court news, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks sent a release reaffirming the state’s current stance that corner crossing is not allowed.
“Corner crossing remains unlawful in Montana, and Montanans should continue to obtain permission from the adjoining landowners before crossing corners from one piece of public land to another,” FWP Director Christy Clark said. “Wardens will continue to report corner crossing cases to local county attorneys to exercise their prosecutorial discretion.”
Under Montana law, a criminal trespassing conviction could land you up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $500.
However, there’s no state law or case law directly addressing corner crossing in Montana.
In 2013, a Democrat-led effort with bipartisan support to codify allowing corner crossing died in the Montana House of Representatives. In 2017, there was draft legislation to officially ban corner crossing, but that never made it to committee.
MTN spoke with several lawyers, including a prosecutor, about the issue. They agreed to provide background as long as it was off-camera due to the clients they represent. The consensus from the lawyers was that most county attorneys don’t pursue corner crossing trespassing cases. They also couldn’t think of a recent corner crossing case in Montana to go to trial.
In 2023, charges were dropped against a Townsend bowhunter stemming from a corner crossing incident. A Montana Department of Justice prosecutor, who was assigned to the case at the request of Broadwater County, had sought hunting without permission charges for a 2021 incident when the hunter corner crossed from one parcel of federal land to another. The charges were abruptly dropped as the case was slated to go to a jury trial.
It should also be noted that Montana also has a history of favoring public access in courts and at the legislature. The state has one of the nation’s strongest protections for stream access, with the state allowing access to all streams for recreation below the high-water mark. Several lawsuits have challenged the stream access law over the years, but the Montana Supreme Court has upheld the protections each time. Under Montana law 87-1-294, the Fish and Wildlife Commission is directed to increase public lands and access to public hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing and other recreational activities as determined by the commission.
It will likely take a similar case as Wyoming’s Iron Bar Holdings v. Cape, or action from Montana lawmakers, before the dispute of corner crossing is fully settled.
