Very typical Wyoming access lockout. Not sure what the case law is but generally the private landowners can block access at these section corners. At least that's what we've all been taught by G&F.
This is a very grey area when talking to WY game wardens. WY Game wardens can’t cite for criminal trespassing but can cite you for trespassing on private with the intent to hunt. Meaning if you knowingly/unknowingly crossed private to get to public to hunt the warden can cite you. If you legally crossed the corner they can’t. Hence the reason the county DA is the one who was called 15 times by the landowner and he called and had a deputy dispatched to write the charges on the hunters.
I dont think there is a legal cross at the corner. The long understanded defination of property lines is that they extend upward into the air, later revised to be limited to the height of the lowest flights in the area. If the corner is the intersection of two lines , meaning it is infintesimally small, and the property lines go up into the air, there is not a way to cross at a corner where you do not break the property line. I think all public land should have access, and I think corner crossing should be legal, the landowner is not being harmed in the slightest, but by those definitions and understandings, and no law in place to make corner crossing legal, it seems that they will be fighting an uphill battle.
The air space seems to be another area that isn’t really defined by law either regarding this matter. What makes no sense either is that in WY you can legally float the river and cross through private as long as you aren’t touching the bottom or the bank. That seems to make much more sense seeing as you aren’t in physical contact with the private property.
In the end I still think the public should be allowed to cross at these type of corners especially if they are not damaging the private property or causing any harm to it. If a person trespasses on private property not at a corner they do deserve to be cited though.
