Camo-Clad Hunters Show Up In Force To Support Legalizing Wyoming Corner-Crossing

In a room packed with hunters, appropriately clad for a Camo at the Capitol Day, a legislative committee voted Thursday to forward a bill that would officially make corner-crossing legal in Wyoming.

House Bill 19 is now headed to the Wyoming House floor after being passed by the House Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee.

As many hunters in Wyoming and the West see it, the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear a case stemming from a 2021 incident in Carbon County essentially made corner-crossing legal.

However, there’s nothing officially in Wyoming statutes declaring it legal here, which HB19 aims to do.

Public comment during the committee hearing was mostly in favor of the bill, but there were detractors as well.

Making Things Clear

Some concerns were raised about the difficulty of marking the precise locations where the adjoining corners of two square parcels of public land meet.

That’s the crux of the matter, because corner-crossing entails moving over that pinpoint while avoiding trespassing on adjoining parcels of private property.

Casper attorney Ryan Semerad represented the hunters initially charged with trespassing in the 2021 Carbon County case and also helped draft HB19.

He told the committee that the bill clarifies for Wyoming law enforcement officers that no crime has happened if people carefully cross between the adjoining corners of public land.

If there’s any question over whether a hunter strayed onto private property, law enforcement officers can investigate evidence at the scene, he said.

The onus will still be on hunters to make sure they’re not trespassing, Semerad said.

“As a hunter, sportsman, outdoorsperson — it’s your duty to know where you are,” he said.

Outdoorsman Bruce Perryman told the committee that HB19 would bring some much-needed clarity for hunters who are trying to decide where they can or can’t go in Wyoming.

“We need some guidelines. This is an unresolved issue,” he said.

What About ADA Access?

Hunter Cody Renner of Lander said he supports the bill but noted that it also raises questions about access for disabled people.

As it is written, it allows corner crossing only by foot, not by any wheeled or tracked vehicle.

However, disabled hunters use chairs with tracks or wheels, he noted.

“How is the public — as in the whole public, including everybody with disabilities — going to be able to access that without damaging the property?” he said.

‘Slow Creep On Property Rights’

Among those who spoke against the bill was Carrie Peters, a farmer and rancher from Park County.

She said the bill could amount to a “slippery slope” toward eroding property rights.

“This is a slow creep on private property rights,” Peters said. "I’m already hearing this creep in the testimony today. One person says, ‘This bill is good.’ Another says, ‘Just add pack animals and then I’ll be happy.’ Where does it stop?”

Wyoming Farm Bureau spokeswoman Kelly Carpenter said the only way her organization could support the bill is if it provides absolute clarity on where public land ends and private property begins for foot traffic across corners.

“If you set foot on private property, our members are going to think you’re trespassing,” she said.

She added that, as she sees it, landowners weren’t offered a chance to provide input in drafting the bill.

“Landowners and landowner groups weren’t brought to the table initially to work on this,” she said.

One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Andrew Byron, R-Jackson, pushed back against that claim.

“We had committee meetings, open committee meetings throughout the state,” he said. "This is an open committee meeting right now. I am a private landowner that participated. Your representatives who are around me participated in this discussion on your behalf."

The Legal Saga That Led To HB19

Across Wyoming and the West there are places where square parcels of public and private land are interlocked in what many describe as “checkerboards.”

Corner-crossing entails passing over the pinpoint where two corners of public land meet.

The matter of whether it’s legal was put to the test in 2021, when four out-of-state elk hunters used a ladder-like device to climb over a corner-crossing between two parcels of federal land in Carbon County.

The parcels were adjacent to ranchland owned by Fred Eshelman and his Iron Bar Holdings LLC company.

Eshelman and Iron Bar first tried to have the hunters charged with criminal trespass, but a jury acquitted them.

Iron Bar and Eshelman took their case into civil courts, all the way up to the federal 10^th Circuit Court, just one level below the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS).

When the 10^th Circuit Court ruled in the hunters’ favor, the landowners petitioned for a hearing before SCOTUS. However, the high court declined to hear the case, effectively upholding the 10^th Circuit Court’s decision.

Many considered that to be a de facto declaration that corner crossing is legal.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.