Corner crossing — stepping from one block of public land to another at a shared corner point without touching private property — is one of the most contested access issues in the American West, and Montana just became its new frontline. We ran a spatial analysis against Montana's parcel data and identified 4,112 locations where the practice is physically possible — though this is an initial analysis and some results may contain errors. The legal status of every one of them is now in court.
The lawsuit: BHA vs. Montana FWP
In January 2026, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks issued an internal memo declaring corner crossing unlawful and directing game wardens to issue citations — a break from prior guidance that had largely left corner crossers alone. On May 14, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers (BHA) and the Public Land & Water Access Association (PLWA) filed suit in Lewis and Clark County District Court, seeking to block the memo and secure access to an estimated 871,000 acres of public land that would become effectively unreachable if corner crossing is ruled trespass.
Our analysis: 4,112 potential crossings
We identified every location in Montana where two public parcels (federal or state) share only a corner point, with private land filling the other two corners of the intersection. The 4,112 crossings we found cluster heavily in eastern Montana where the original railroad-era checkerboard land pattern is most intact, and in river corridors where federal ownership follows a patchwork of bottomland and upland parcels.
4,112 potential corner crossings in Montana · OutsideDB spatial analysis · Montana cadastral parcel data