This is fascinating :)<p>> North and South Dakota define section lines as a public right of way, which seems to allow corner crossing or at least access to landlocked public lands.<p>Here in Illinois, my rear property line is a section line, and a neighbor down the street has the intersection of that section line with another; interestingly it is not on his property line (this is land that was sold by the federal government in 40 acre square quarters of a quarter, but farmers had subdivided and consolidated things over the years). But anyway, in his yard is a stone survey marker showing the intersection point, and it has "ROW" engraved on it. It lends credence to this concept being common historically.