How do you determine if a piece of land has a easement?

[Hunter&Huntress]

Hunting in Central Wyoming can be a pain sometimes. often I will take a drive to look at a piece of land to only find out there is a no trespass sign on the road to get there. I have read a couple articles from Randy about different ways to gain access to places. How are you guys Figuring out if a piece of land has an easement? Or if a road is public or private? I'm willing to do the work just don't know where to start. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Big Fin]

For an easement, you most often have to look at the property records at the county courthouse.

Some states/counties have a list of public roads that you can get from their road maintenance department. If they are public roads, they are on the list of roads needing plowed, graded, maintained.

 

[Hunter&Huntress]

Thanks Randy!

 

[jbozahunter]

Access, or easement.....

There is a specific area in western Wyoming that I hunt that I could only access from the top of the mountain, (or so I thought) as the bottom was all private, with no public access. Not a huge deal, as I'm not afraid to do what I have to do, but the climb back up that mountain is not a fun one, especially with a load. Then I found GPS Huntmaps, and first used the computer based version, which showed a two track road, that is an access point to national forest, that I never knew was there, or assumed it was private as well. I then purchased the chip for my gps. To me, this is an invaluable tool for all aspects of hunting, or any other outdoor activity. As a side note, one of my friends was hunting antelope over by Casper, found a buck he wanted to harvest, but the land was posted "no trespassing" , his gps said it was BLM and state land, so he called G&F. They came and investigated, using the same method, gps with maps chip, and found it to be public land. Come to find out, an outfitter was trying to pull a fast one.

I believe this could help with your endeavor to find access,
Jbo

 

[Hunter&Huntress]

I do have the gps chip. I have found that it shows public and private roads sometimes.

 

[Colberjs]

I use Hunting GPS Maps also. But I am still a bit leary of the accuracy. I know they do their best to provide accurate information. But in the end the burden of proof is on me not them. I use it as a starting place and the go from there.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

The GPS chips show land ownership, but do not use them for road access because they don't differentiate what is public and private beyond the state highway system. Just because a road has a county number or even a BLM or NF number or name doesn't mean that it's public the entire length. Do as Randy stated and follow up at the county, BLM, and or NF office if you have any road that you have any kind of a question about or you could get into trouble. On the other hand, if you are on a road that is legal and run into land that is posted, but your GPS chip shows it as public land, it's close to 100% that someone has posted the property illegally because the chips are very accurate and continually updated. There is a lot of that going on out west by ranchers and outfitters.

 

[ccc23454]

I always use the online county GIS data, usually has a county road option for map. then compare that to other maps and chip