Wyoming corner-crossing pioneer Brad Cape dies at 55

Bradly Cape, the Missouri hunter who fought and won two legal challenges after corner crossing to hunt elk on public land in Carbon County, died of a heart attack Saturday in his hometown of Steelville, Missouri. He was 55.

Cape, whose name captioned landmark legal cases stemming from a hunt on Elk Mountain in 2021, was found dead on a favorite running trail, his hunting partner John Slowensky said.

Cape, a fence builder, father and hunter, planned elk hunts to Wyoming in 2020 and 2021, intending to reach public land on the wildlife-rich peak by corner crossing. That would involve passing through the airspace above Elk Mountain Ranch property owned by North Carolina pharmaceutical magnate Fred Eshelman.

Corner crossing had lingered in legal limbo until Cape and his companions were charged with trespassing in 2021 and sued by Eshelman in 2022. The Wyoming Chapter of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers supported the hunters’ defense.

A Carbon County jury found “The Missouri Four” not guilty of trespassing. Courts sided with the corner-crossing hunters in Eshelman’s civil trespass suit, Iron Bar Holdings v. Bradly Cape, which worked its way to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider Eshelman’s appeal, cementing Cape’s name in public access history across Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma and Kansas. The 10th Circuit Court’s decision clarifies the public’s right to access 3 million acres of public land in the six states, according to onX, the digital mapping company that was a key player in the legal drama.

Cape, who knew a bit about property lines from his fence building career, researched his projects and understood “what is right and not right,” Slowensky said. Cape had faith in his convictions.

“We never thought one time that we were doing something wrong,” Cape told WyoFile after the Supreme Court decision.

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Born in 1971, in Rolla, Missouri, Cape graduated from Steelville High School in 1989, according to his obituary at Britton-Bennett Funeral Home. He had two children and worked on the family farm as well as his All-Type Fence business.

His knowledge about fence building and property boundaries led to a corner-crossing breakthrough.

Corner crossing is used to reach public land in the checkerboard pattern of landownership that spans southern Wyoming in a 40-mile wide strip along the Union Pacific Railroad line. Corner crossers step from one public land parcel to another contiguous one where the parcels share a common corner with two pieces of private land.

Corner crossers do not touch private land but necessarily pass through the airspace above the contiguous private property. Many land and ranch owners and some law enforcement officials assert that corner crossing is trespassing.

The legal cloud over corner crossing deterred access to 2.4 million acres of public land in Wyoming and some 8.3 million acres across the West. By blocking public access, private landowners can treat public land as their own, public-access advocates assert.

At Elk Mountain Ranch, Eshelman’s ranch manager had blocked a common public-land corner with T-posts, no trespassing signs and a wire, chain and lock above the surveyed monument at a common corner of public and private land.

After the hunters corner crossed by swinging around the T-post obstacle in 2020, the ranch manager told them they were trespassing and not to touch the posts — private property — again.

Back in Missouri, Cape and the others built a light stile they used in 2021 to climb over the T-post obstacle. In their defense, attorney Ryan Semerad argued in part that the federal Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885 prevented checkerboard landowners from obstructing public access to public land. The federal law supersedes Wyoming trespass statutes, courts decided.

Services for Cape are scheduled for Aug. 13 in Steelville. The outdoors, family and faith marked Cape’s life, Slowensky said.

The not guilty verdict in the 2022 misdemeanor criminal trespass trial affirmed Slowensky’s belief in the American system of justice. He remembers standing in the Rawlins courtroom — the only person not seated — as Carbon County Circuit Court Judge Susan Stipe read the verdict.

“It gave us a lot of faith,” he said.

Read about Brad Cape, The Missouri Four and their legal cases through WyoFile’s extensive coverage.