When I first started traveling the West as a nonresident hunter in the mid-1970s, I quickly learned that most ranchers in the Rocky Mountain states didn’t care for hunters driving trucks that sported California license plates. I also learned that the best hunting for pronghorns, mule deer and elk was often concentrated around private lands that grew crops and had stable water sources. Additionally, I learned that some ranchers tried to block access to public lands bordering their properties.
In those pre-internet days, I did lots of library research, looking for access routes around—and sometimes through—private lands to the public ground. I found lots of options, including parcels of what are known as schoolhouse lands in Montana. These little pockets of public ground were required by law to have public access, which often went
