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P owns a checkerboarded ranch that spans 50 square miles. Interspersed within its holdings are 27 federal and state public parcels totaling 11,000 acres. Most of these parcels are completely enclosed by Iron Bar's private land. Hunting by the public is authorized by the BLM, making it a desirable destination for elk hunting. In the fall of 2020, Bradley Cape, Zachary Smith, and Phillip Yeomans (Ds) traveled from Missouri to Elk Mountain to hunt elk. They navigated to the corners of public land overlaying Elk Mountain. These corners are physically denoted by a steel United States Geological Survey marker cap driven into the ground. Once at the cap, they 'corner-crossed' and stepped directly from the corner of one public parcel to the corner of the other. They never made contact with the surface of P’s land, but they did momentarily occupy its airspace. P is not friendly to corner-crossers. P erected signposts over the United States Geological Survey marker. They could not fit between the signposts and under the chain to corner-cross, but they were undeterred by this odd barricade: 'one by one, each grabbed one of the steel posts and swung around it, planting their feet only' on Sections 14 and 24, but passing through the airspace above P's Sections 23 and 13. There is no showing that any damage occurred to P's property. P also directed its employees to confront or interact with a 'suspected trespasser' found on or near [its] property, even if the person was found while on public land. P’s employees were instructed to threaten Ds with criminal trespass and report them to the Wyoming Game & Fish Department. P's property manager found Ds on Elk Mountain public land and requested that they leave the area. Ds refused, so the manager contacted law enforcement. The responding sheriff, however, did not issue a warning or citation after the Ds explained that they had merely corner-crossed. Ds completed their hunting trip and returned home without further incident. Ds returned to the area in the next year and brought a steel A-frame ladder to avoid even touching P's signposts. P's staff confronted Ds multiple times. They also interfered with the Hunters' activities by driving motorized vehicles across public parcels to scare away game. When Ds refused to leave, P contacted the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and the local sheriff's office. Both refused to take action. P got the local prosecuting attorney's office to prosecute Ds for criminal trespass. The prosecutor's office instructed the sheriff's office to write Ds citations for criminal trespassing, and directed the Wyoming Game and Fish Department to instruct Ds to leave and not reenter the public lands at issue. Ds went to trial and were ultimately acquitted. P served Ds with a lawsuit for civil trespassing, alleging $9 million in damages owing to the alleged diminution of its property value. The district court denied P's motion for summary judgment and granted Ds' motion. The district court held 'corner-crossing on foot in the checkerboard pattern of land ownership without physically contacting private land and without causing damage to private property does not constitute an unlawful trespass.' P appealed.

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