Checkerboarding (land)

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Checkerboarding refers to a situation where land ownership is intermingled between two or more owners, resulting in a checkerboard pattern. Checkerboarding is prevalent in the Western United States.

Checkerboarding in the West often occurred due to railroad land grants under the Pacific Railway Acts beginning in 1862, wherein railroads would be granted every other section along a rail corridor.

Checkerboarding also occurred due to Native American land grants, wherein native land was intermingled with non-native land. Many Native American tribes were and are against checkerboarding, because it broke up traditionally communal native settlements into many individual plots, and allowed non-natives to claim land within those settlements.

The Dawes Act of 1887 was responsible for much Native American checkerboarding. The act was intended to bolster self-sufficiency among the natives by giving each individual between 40 and 160 acres.

Checkerboarding can often create problems regarding access and ecological management, because it is one of the major causes of inholdings within the boundaries of national forests.