Have you ever been driving along and noticed that somebody has been painting trees, the top of fence posts, and even old tires purple? Vandalism? No, it means “Private Property, No Trespassing”.
Really. I’m not kidding, it does.
Purple paint means “No permission? Keep out!”
As hard as some people apparently find it to believe, in many states this purple mark means exactly the same as if the landowner had posted a “No Hunting” or “No Trespassing” sign.
The landowner of the tree in the photo above (me) has painted purple marks in accordance with the laws of the state I live in, Missouri.
Other states have their own rules, and landowners need to follow them for the paint to be considered valid.
Many states “don’t do paint” and for a few, the No-No paint is a different color
I made this super-duper nifty graph to show you whether your state has a “paint law” and, if so, what color paint you should be using/paying attention to.
I’ve checked this list twice, so it should be accurate at the time this article originally posts. As far as I can tell, this is the only article on the entire internet that has all this information in one place. If you find any corrections need to be made, please let me know!
|
State Name
|
Paint Laws, Colors Used (Y=Purple, N=No)
|
|---|---|
| Alabama | Y |
| Alaska | N |
| Arizona | N |
| Arkansas | Y |
| California | N |
| Colorado | N |
| Connecticut | N |
| Delaware | N |
| Florida | N |
| Georgia | Y |
| Hawaii | N |
| Idaho | Fluorescent Orange |
| Illinois | Y |
| Indiana | Y |
| Iowa | In Committee |
| Kansas | Y |
| Kentucky | Y |
| Louisiana | Y |
| Maine | Y |
| Maryland | Blue Stripes |
| Massachusetts | N |
| Michigan | N (Legislation Failed) |
| Minnesota | N |
| Mississippi | DNA – All private land considered posted |
| Missouri | Y |
| Montana | N |
| Nebraska | N |
| Nevada | Fluorescent Orange |
| New Hampshire | N |
| New Jersey | N |
| New Mexico | N |
| New York | In Committee |
| North Carolina | Y |
| North Dakota | N |
| Ohio | In Committee |
| Oklahoma | N (Legislation Failed) |
| Oregon | Fluorescent Orange |
| Pennsylvania | N |
| Rhode Island | N |
| South Carolina | N |
| South Dakota | N |
| Tennessee | Y |
| Texas | Y |
| Utah | Fluorescent Orange or Yellow |
| Vermont | N |
| Virginia | Y |
| Washington | N |
| West Virginia | Y |
| Wisconsin | Y |
| Wyoming | N |
Why did this all come about?
The purple paint system started originally in Arkansas in 1989, and other states started to adopt it in the 1990’s. My home state of Missouri is a good example of this, we passed the law in 1993.
Why? Does it mean we are too cheap to buy signs or too lazy to put them up? No, not at all… although the cost of durable signs can be quite high if you own a lot of land.
No, the real reason is that people who trespass like to tear down No Trespassing signs so they can claim “I didn’t see any signs!” With the various state laws, there are often differences between people trespassing on posted property vs. unposted property.
You can’t tear down a purple painted tree or fence nearly as easily as getting rid of a couple of signs. I’ve honestly never seen anybody destroy or steal a 50 foot tall oak tree just to get rid of the “No Trespassing” markers.
So… how does it work?
It works differently in different states. As noted in the chart above, some states use different color of paint, and there are some other unique things in some of these states. That’s a bit beyond the scope of this article. If you live (or plan to bugout to) a state that is on the above list I suggest you become familiar with that state’s own laws.
Here in Missouri, a professor at the University of Missouri shared some simple guidelines of how our law works:
- Any owner or lessee of real property can post property with the purple paint marks.
- Purple paint marks must be placed on either trees or posts (the statute does not specifically allow the option of placing paint marks on buildings).
- Vertical paint lines must be at least 8 inches long (the statute does not mention a maximum length).
- The bottom edge of each paint mark must be between 3 feet and 5 feet off the ground.
- Paint marks must be readily visible to any person approaching the property.
- Purple paint marks cannot be more than 100 ft. apart.
Not all paint is created equal
Since we became landowners several years ago, we’ve made it a point to paint our fences and trees with purple markings at The Place. Fortunately, our neighbors agree with us and most of the back and side of the fences they paint so we don’t have to. The front road however gets the big treatment.
If you look closely you will see two different colors of paint. The top color is still purple two years after it was applied. The bottom? It didn’t stay purple through hunting season.
The good purple paint (and it does have to be a particular shade of purple to be legal) is a Rustoleum product. The bottom (nearly instantly faded) paint is a Walmart brand supposedly designed specifically to mark no trespassing boundaries.
Spice, using the cheap Wally World post paint in 2014. It was a no-go.
Yeah, WallyWorld, I think that one’s a fail.
If Snopes is to be believed…
According to the Snopes website (you can draw your own conclusions about whether they are to be trusted), “Information about ‘purple paint’ trespass warning laws in some states is often shared under misleading titles.”
They state that there are rumors and stories running around that purple paint on a fence means that you are in danger and need to leave.
They debunk this.
Me? I’m not so sure, I think that with many people out here in the country, how safe you are really depends upon which side of that purple marked border area you are on.
Spice and I talk about this on a our podcast, which you can listen to here:
