Ever been on a float trip or camping and crossed the path of a tree or fence that had a purple painted square on it? You probably didn’t pay any attention to it. Many floaters and campers don’t acknowledge the purple square at all without realizing by ignoring it, they’re breaking the law.
The purple square painted on trees or on fences means ‘No Trespassing.’ Missouri is one of the few states that have this law, although there are some property owners in other states that enjoy this law and are hoping that their state passes it too. The law was passed in 2012 and took immediate effect in 2013. The reason behind it is to help private property owners keep away from unwanted guests. The legal owner of the property can paint these squares anywhere they’d like to keep people away, such as rowdy crowds, floaters who want to stop to eat or swim, or campers.
There are a few rules that go with the purple painted square. The first rule is that the purple squares have to be either on trees or fence posts. The purple squares can’t be more than 100ft apart from each other. The square itself must be, at the least, 8 inches in height and 8 inches in width. The law requires those measurements of the square that way so it is big enough for any passerby to see and notice it. Lastly, the square has to be painted 3 to 5 feet off the ground of the tree.
Most private property owners use the purple paint instead of the signs because people can go and tear down the signs. Trespassing on any private property is illegal but trespassing on property that have no trespassing signs/painted trees is a serious offense, and can lead to more trouble for the trespasser. The fee for trespassing on no trespassing property can be a $500 fine and up to 6 months in jail. Tearing down the signs and disposing of them has caused private property owners not able to prove that they had those signs up if they caught the trespassers. The purple paint is something trespassers can’t exactly tear down and throw away. The purple paint law gives an advantage to property owners because now if they catch someone trespassing, they will have the proof painted on one, if not multiple, trees.
Some private property owners paint these squares on their trees to keep floaters out who want to jump off the cliffs or rope swing. Some owners may have property close to the river where floating happens and have cliffs where they think floaters might want to stop and jump off of. If there is a painted purple square it might be because the owner of that land knows that the cliff is not safe to jump off of. There could be rocks that the floaters can’t see and someone could get hurt. The owners also use this law to keep the floaters who want to pull over and set up their picnic to eat or go for a swim. Make sure if you’re pulling over to stop floating for a while, you’re not doing it on private property.
Campers can come across these signs too. If you’re choosing to camp in the woods and not at a campsite, make sure to keep a look out for the purple square on trees around you. If there is one on one tree, there is probably more painted on the other trees around you. It is more likely safer to camp out at a campsite than to wonder in the woods. Campers go out to have a great experience with their friends or family, and don’t want to end up with a fine for trespassing.
Whether you’re a floater or a camper, make sure that you pay attention to your surroundings. Look at the trees and fences when trying to find a place to pull over or camp. You don’t want a floating and camping adventure to end up with a frustrated group of friends or family and a big ticket to pay off
The Howell County Sheriffs office won’t enforce this law. I know that for a fact! Someone came onto our property and my husband told him to leave. He then suckered punched my husband in the face and the Sheriff did nothing at all to him, not even assault charges. The trespasser was supposedly looking for his child that wasn’t with us. The Howell County Sheriff’s are plain and simple LAZY! The Sheriff’s office wouldn’t even file a report.
YEAH! STAY OFF MY LAWN!
What’s Missouri’s law regarding public access to the river bars and banks? Typically property deeds list the boundary to the middle of the river, giving land owners the impression that they own it and the banks. My understanding is that ours rivers are considered public and that a desinated amount of footage from the water line to the flood bank is public. I fish often from numourus southwest Missouri river and have encountered landowners who are not keen on having fisherman or partiers on their banks. Many cry foul and argue while using the deeds wording I mentioned earlier as a defense.
Was considering a visit there this summer.Most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Public owns river.nature etc. Most folks know if home on bank it’s private property. What if get a leg cramp or some e.r.? Seems like a money making scheme for your state! Bet you’ll lose more visitors than just me. Shameful + greedy !!
Not shameful or greedy on the part of landowners. They aren’t (or shouldn’t be) keeping you from being in the river or on its bank. However, sometimes it doesn’t end there. Folks climb up into the land to poop, they eat on the banks and leave a mess, and–as mentioned in the article–try to avoid people from jumping from their land into the river. This is a liability issue for the landowner. I am sure at least 95% of river users are respectful, the notices are for the 5% who are not. If you fall in the 5% and trespassing laws offend you then we likely don’t want you here anyway.
You are allowed ten feet of river bank . From the waters edge ten feet of ANY river way. Don’t matter if there is posted land or not. So boats and floaters can seak shelter or rest. So never exceed TEN FEET.
Please do not assume to tell us why we camp! You are you very wrong.
Purple paint… I’ve problem seeing purple paint.. It is not visible on weathered wood or tree bark..
I rather use old tires with white paint ‘ NO TRESPASSING’
I thought Missouri loves company.
I am trying to imagine the situation one commentator was in. A parent was looking for their lost child and your husband demanded he leave? A lost child? Tells the parent to leave?! Wow. What has happened to compassion?
I live in Missouri, do not like trespassers, they are usually casing the property, come at night and the sky will light up.
I believe this right derives from the interstate commerce clause in the U.S. constitution regarding navigable waterways.
I think that the dude looking for his child should have punched that asshat that lacks compassion!
From Kansas US parks website. The public rivers are the Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri They are open to the public between the ordinary high water marks on each bank. This is the line that can be seen where high water has left debris, sand, and gravel during its ordinary annual cycle. When these rivers flow through private land, permission is needed from adjacent landowners to access the rivers as well as when picnicking, camping, portaging or engaging in any other activity on the adjacent private lands.
Except where they pass through the legal limits of a government entity, the rest of our streams and rivers are privately owned, and permission is needed from the landowners to access and use the streams and adjacent lands for any purpose.
As a landowner along the Huzzah, our main reason for no trespassing is due to the liability issue. Someone attempted to sue us when they broke an ankle on our gravel bar. Luckily, it was thrown out of court, but we still had to hire an attorney to fight it. In addition, our homeowner’s insurance required a special rider added to it which will cost us every year. I also agree with a previous comment that said that 95% of floaters follow the rules, we unfortunately have to protect ourselves from the other 5%. No one in the city would want me to camp in their backyard, start a bonfire or use their yard as my bathroom.
Missouri law allows canoes to travel down navigable rivers and creeks. This includes LIMITED access to banks. The purple markings make sense since trees usually don’t grow right on a shoreline (except during a flood).
Additionally, there are state reps who want to remove the navigable river rule, allowing property owners to put fencing through ANY river, blocking boaters on even the navigable rivers. Not sure how this will affect the Missouri or Mississippi Rivers.
to the commenter who is a landowner on the Huzzah–
thank you for providing a calm and rational point-of-view. i hope floaters do respect your property. i have seen people be really disrespectful on the river, and i wouldn’t want them on my land either.
anyhow… real shame the situation with the guy searching for his lost child escalated into such a mess. is it that hard to be respectful to each other, folks?
If there is any more laws we I might as well move over to Russia so that the dictator can tell us when to jump and how high Jess,! Or wait for China to blow us up because they own USA and you to so go ahead and make another law for all of us to follow what’s the difference next they or you will tell what color to poop!
You had better read the federal laws governing the right of passage. Some land owners would like to keep you from fishing from the banks but according to federal law you are legal. It has nothing to do with state law and has been on the books since the USA was founded.
I wonder if Ohio has a similar law? We can’t _keep_ “No Trespassing” signs up!
If people would just respect other people’s property & fences then we wouldn’t need to put up signs or deface our trees & fences with unnatural purple paint in the first place.
If you have a problem with respecting property that you do not hold the deed to our pay the taxes on then do us a favor and stay out of Missouri.
Simple as that.
BTW Missouri is the “Show Me State”, NOT the “We Love Rude Visitors State”.
In the US navigable waterways have right of passage by water and by public easements. There are exceptions.
stand in front of my house with your Johnson in your hand pissing and looking in my window….that makes me want to welcome you with open arms
I can see that the sales of purple paint to anti-hunting activists who DON’T OWN PROPERTY will go through the roof.
Maryland has had a similar rule since the dawn of time. Yellow vertical stripe on a tree indicates you are looking into state property, yellow dot means you’re looking into private property. In Maryland this is mostly to keep people from hunting illegally on private property and it is my understanding that that is the main goal of Missouri’s law. No trespassing signs can be torn down, paint can’t. The boundaries all already exist and the law already protects private property from trespasses. All this does is clarify the lines and it is completely voluntary. The people suggesting they might as well move to Russia are insane. Nothing has changed. It’s always been illegal to trespass.
Sad to see this!
In England and Wales UK, this attitude is trying to deny canoe and kayak access to most of our rivers. The land owners believe they have total control over the navigation of rivers and get very unpleasant about paddlers using the rivers. To make matters worse anglers can become quite ugly about it. They believe they have exclusive rights to the rivers for fishing and paddlers are not allowed in their minds.
We live in Illinois and have a canoe. When we canoe whether it’s on any of the lakes or rivers we spend a lot of our time picking trash out of the waterways. Can not believe that people dump their trah anywhere. How hard is it to carry a trash bag with you. We also respect peoples property. The only time we would ever pull over is it it was an emergency!
I’m so glad to live in Scotland. There’s no such thing as a trespass law, we have a country code and certain laws protecting wildlife etc. We have the right and ability to go where we wish which prevents people going where they don’t need to be. There’s no risk involved and it spoils the fun. We can wild camp anywhere (within reason and using common sense) we follow the rules for clearing up fires and litter. There will always be people who are just lazy and take advantage but here we’d be helping look for the lost child with its parents. Telling each other about dangerous places and being respectful of one another. Rivers,mountains,seas and landforms were here long before us and probably long after you fight over them. We do not own them, but we should all be able to enjoy them. Here in Scotland we are free to walk in our mountains, float in our rivers and bathe in the sun. You don’t know what you’re missing out on my friends.
In UK all land and waterways are private and can not be accessed legally but trespass is a civil mater and not a legal issue. Therefore you can’t be arrested for trespass the landowner has to take you to court to claim damages from the trespasser.Until relatively recently (in UK history) there was no access at all to any land in the UK. Now there is negotiated access to highland ( mostly open moorland) and national parkland.
And one of the biggest reasons no one hikes, or hears of anyone hiking in the UK! Most people see the UK from packaged tours and buses.
And by the way… what is going to stop random jokers from painting ugly purple blotches on every tree they see? How do you tell the difference between a ‘fake’ purple blotch and a real purple blotch? Is it even healthy for the trees? I really don’t see this holding up in court, actually I think it is something the lawyers cooked up to buy a new Mercedes. But hey, I don’t live in this area and its not my wasted tax money. Good luck with this.
That’s not a square, it’s a rectangle. I wonder if it would hold up in a court of law.
The law is geared more towards hunters and keeping asshats off your land during hunting seasons. I’ve floated many of the rivers and streams of Missouri and Arkansas, I’ve never had a single issue with a land owner. Maybe that is because I don’t venture off into their property. People who own land on the rivers know and expect there to be people using the waterways, it is understood that they give free unimpeded access. The purple paint law has been around for a few years, property lines have been around for centuries. The purple paint is just a visual indicator of where one property starts or ends. Respect their ownership and there won’t be any issues.
The “Purple Slash” is an age old method of signifying a boundary of No Hunting. In the past, the only trespasser was a poacher. It has only been in recent times have river rats used it as a ” no trespass” sign. It should be respected. Use a little consideration. River front owners pay taxes, maintains the land. (unless they run livestock though it….legal)
Seriously now. With the exception of the 10 foot of riverbank anyone that thinks they should have a right to enter on to private property in any state to go for a hike or enjoy the outdoors or to cut through to get access to someplace else is an idiot. Private means private. It is not for public use.
When I patrol my property (not in MO) I do so armed (for defense against animal attack). If I find you trespassing you will be told once nicely to leave. Give me any lip and you will be ordered at gunpoint off of my land. Refusal at that point would be a very unhealthy decision.
As for as the out of stater who is going to boycott our beautiful streams, thank you! Especially after a recent float where I picked someone else’s trash out of their campfire and hauled it to the takeout! It consisted of a burned out steel lawn chair and 6 Yeungling Beer cans that can’t be purchased in our beautiful state!
Does not matter if Missouri law is changed to restrict use of navigable waterways. Federal Law says they can not do that and the law will not stand. The Coca Cola company tried that here in Ga and got their ass handed to them in court.
people will still tresspass. if they get caught, they will just say they were lost and wandered on to the property. it,s a stupid idea and it will not stop tresspassers. also, they could paint over it.
This law would be AWESOME in Northern Minnesota. Instead of putting up so many signs on my property that I own because people don’t reapect I own the land on both sides of a river. They leave garbage and cut down my trees for campfires. Then leave the fires still going after they leave. Hmmm shall we say dangerous
People are nuts if they think they are gonna float down a river jump off onto private land and camp. Like they said %5 ruined it for everyone because they have no respect. Next thing u know one of these people will build a shelter and squat on my property and claim ownership. Like the one guy stated. Please enjoy the rivers and in an emergency stop by. God bless.
Sorry but to start the parent looking for the child probably was not looking for a child, good excuse. I am not where I have to worry about floaters but I do have ATV’s. I personaly do not agree with our trespassing laws. If you do not have a deed to said property you know you are trespassing. All my expensive signs don’t mean much. Stay off my property
Some of the property owners go beyond their own property and paint on public lands. They have it in Montana and got carried away with painting fence posts beyond their property, from people fishing the rivers.
Texas has had this law for a LONG time! And, for those folks that say they are allowed on all rivers they are WRONG! They are only allowed along NAVIGABLE rivers. This does not include the many rivers that many people try to ride their 4 wheelers up and down all year in our part of the world. I know because I have one of those rivers running through my ranch and those 4-wheeling idiots run through chasing my cattle, dumping their trash and causing havoc. We shoot at trespassers in our part of the country then call the sheriff.
Sounds like another really stupid California suggestion!! Barbwire and bullets work really well here in AZ.