Landlocked Property Near Daniel Boone National Forest, McCreary County

Because Daniel Boone National Forest and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area together cover so much of McCreary County, private parcels wholly or substantially surrounded by federal land -- inholdings -- are a genuine, recurring pattern here, not a rare edge case. Understanding how legal access actually works for land like this is a real, practical part of buying in McCreary County.

This page covers what's specific to McCreary County. For the general explanation, see the national guide.

Why inholdings are common here, specifically

An inholding is privately owned land that sits wholly or substantially surrounded by federal or other public land -- a pattern that shows up across national forests nationwide, often because the private tract predates the forest's federal designation, or because a family retained a parcel when surrounding land was acquired for conservation. In McCreary County, this pattern is unusually common precisely because Daniel Boone National Forest and the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area together occupy such a large share of the county's total land area -- leaving remaining private tracts, in some parts of the county, effectively as islands within the federal forest rather than parcels that simply border it on one side.

This matters in a very practical way for a buyer: a parcel's road frontage on a map, or its listed acreage, doesn't tell you whether the actual, physical, drivable route to that parcel crosses private land you have a clear legal right to use, a public road maintained by the county or state, or land managed by the U.S. Forest Service where access arrangements work differently than they do on private property.

What to check before buying an inholding or near-inholding parcel

Start by confirming, through a title search and a review of the recorded plat, whether the parcel has a recorded easement providing legal access, and where exactly that easement's route runs relative to the actual road or trail you'd use to reach the property. If the practical access route crosses U.S. Forest Service land rather than a private easement, ask the Forest Service directly whether that route is a public forest road (generally open, though sometimes gated seasonally or for resource protection) or requires a special-use permit for a private landowner's access -- these are genuinely different arrangements with different long-term reliability, and the difference matters enormously for a parcel you're planning to build on or rely on for regular access.

Also ask directly whether any recorded easement or access arrangement is tied to the current owner personally or runs with the land itself (making it transferable to you as the new owner) -- this is a real distinction that can be easy to miss in a private sale, and it is exactly the kind of detail worth confirming with a title examiner and, where federal land is involved, directly with the Forest Service ranger district office before you commit to buying a parcel that depends on it.

Landlocked Property Near Daniel Boone National Forest in McCreary County, Kentucky

Why inholdings are common here, specifically

What to check before buying an inholding or near-inholding parcel

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