Checkerboard Land

[hsargent21]

Good Morning. First time post so let me start by introducing myself. My name is Russ I'm from East Texas and have been hunting for the past 35 years. I have been lurking on this site for several years and have gained a lot of knowledge from this site. I'm active duty Air Force for the past 24 years currently in North Dakota. I have had the opportunity to hunt in several western states most recently on a antelope hunt in Wyoming. Had a lot of fun and plan on making many future hunts to this state. I'm in the process of planning a elk hunt for 2019. I'm still learning to use OnXmaps and have a question about Checkerboard land. Please refer to the southern part of Wyoming Elk Unit 105. I see a large parcel that is checkerboard BLM/Western Wyoming Range LTD Part. Is this land off limits without a trespass permission? How/why did this land get set up this way? Just seems strange.

 

[MThuntr]

short of a long explanation that I'm not sure I have the best grasp of this morning (I hunted hard yesterday then ended up at the hot springs )...part of getting railroad across the US was to give them a bunch of land which is nearly always checkerboarded...that land was sold and the BLM ended up with other stuff.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkerboarding_(land)

 

[utah400elk]

Short answer. Yes and no. There is no corner crossing law in Wyoming and the decision about trespassing will be up to the local sheriff’s office and the local DA. There have been a lot of people cited/arrested for trespassing and there have been a lot that have not been bothered. If you are coming from out of state...call the local SO and or DA and ask. I would not plan a trip from out of state planning on hunting those areas.