Area 51: Feds seek eminent domain of adjacent 400 acre "Groom Mine" family owned since 1889

[presence]

http://www.news.com.au/finance/real-estate/us-air-force-threatens-to-destroy-property-next-door-to-area-51-after-owners-refuse-to-sell/story-fncq3era-1227530415095


US air force threatens to destroy property next door to Area 51 after owners refuse to sell
September 16, 2015 5:40pm


http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/bdfd98e733a4a42d2afa4f5f67ebd30d
‘Patriots’: Members of the Sheahan family at Groom Mine in an undated picture: Area 51 can be seen in the background. Picture: Facebook


MARNIE O’NEILLnews.com.au (http://www.news.com.au/)






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THEY’VE been bombed, shot at, and intimidated for 60 years. But the Sheahans don’t want to give up their land to the “neighbours from hell.”

The family own the 400 acre Groom Mine, which overlooks Area 51, one of America’s most closely guarded military secrets and a mecca for UFO spotters and conspiracy theorists from all over the world.
Located in the Nevada Desert, the military base officially known as “The Nevada Test and Training Range” borders on the Sheahan’s property, which has been in the family since 1889.
The family’s allegations range from illegal government searches and checkpoints to military jet attacks on the mine and a devastating cancer cluster that has seen the premature deaths of several members.
But the final straw — and the one that drove the Sheahans to end an extraordinary six decades of silence — came last month when the US Air Force (USAF) gave them an ultimatum: sell up for $5.2m or watch it seized and destroyed for free.
The family turned them down, claiming the offer was less than half the true value of the land and didn’t come close to compensating for Area 51’s legacy of disease and lost livelihood.
Last week, USAF filed a lawsuit seeking to have the property condemned to speed up acquisition. If successful, the Sheahans will be left with nothing.
“We really didn’t want to come public, but the air force has forced us into it,” Dan Sheahan, who co-owns the mine with cousins Joe Sheahan and Barbara Sheahan-Manning, told Las Vegas Now (http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/nevada-family-fights-government-over-property-near-area-51).
“We want them to know what they have done over the last 60 years to our family is not acceptable.”
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/2d654ca905341af011bfddcaa346993f
The Sheahans say they’ve been held at gunpoint at military checkpoints on the way in and out of their property, which has been in the family since the 1880s. Picture: FacebookSource:



http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/47a897078bfc6ceff04c1bca3722106f
The titanium A-12 spy plane prototype is mounted onto a pylon for radar cross section tests at Area 51 in an undated photo. Picture: FacebookSource:Supplied



The USAF says it wants the land because, after decades of escorting family members in and out of the highly-restricted space, it can no longer ensure their safety.
“We’ve tried to do everything we can, include cancelling missions when they come out,” senior air force commander Colonel Thomas Dempsey said. “And that’s a tremendous expense to taxpayers.”
But Joe Sheahan told CNN that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“I didn’t create this mess, they did,” he said. “They surrounded us. We’re tired of running, tired of hiding. I think that they’re capping off 60-plus years of nothing short of criminal activity.
“What they really want to buy is our property, our access rights and our view. We prefer to keep our property, but it’s for sale under the right price at the right conditions. Why don’t they ask themselves what it cost my family over the years in blood, sweat, tears and money?”
The family’s Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Groommine) describes them as “ardent patriots” who have tried to be “flexible to the requirements of Area 51”.
“In return, we have received nothing but threats and indignant acts by our own government,” it says.
“The acts of the USAF are an abomination of the ideals on which this country was built: that every American has certain inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and, that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
“It’s time that the USAF upheld this notion.”
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/bf709888ce232b75954065d53e4fafe9
The abandoned Groom Mine today. Picture: FacebookSource:



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The site that would become known as Area 51 can be seen in the distance in this undated photo. Picture: FacebookSource:



The ultra-classified facility has swallowed up close to three million acres of surrounding land since USAF realtors started buying up in the 1940s. It was around this time that Groom Mine property was sprayed with bullets from overhead aircraft in the first effort, the family says, to intimidate them into leaving.
The mine was functioning and prosperous until the mid-50s when the base was built and the USAF started conducting nuclear weapons experiments and U-2 spy plane tests, and amped up the scare tactics.
But the Sheahans stayed, operating a ore processing mill until it mysteriously exploded in 1954, ending production permanently. The family believes the mill was destroyed by an “errant bomb” or “aircraft engine” that fell from the sky. They cite a fire inspector’s letter (http://s3.amazonaws.com/nxsglobal/lasvegasnow/document_dev/2015/09/01/letter_groom_mine_4656005_ver1.0.pdf?_sm_au_=iVV7j 6DS7Z20wQFP)that “a foreign object or device may have been instrumental.”
They sought compensation from the government but ran out of money to see the lawsuit through. It would be the last time they would use lawyers.
A 1959 letter from Ms Sheahan-Manning’s parents, Daniel and Martha Sheahan, to the then-U.S. Attorney General William P. Rogers blamed the mine’s demise on radioactive fall out and the mill’s destruction process.
The air force had “intentionally using our property for military test purposes and then forcing us to bring suit in order to try to protect ourselves,” the letter stated.
It was the start of a 60 year war between the USAF and the Sheahans, who claim they have been sporadically held at gunpoint while visiting their property.
The Sheahans claim a 1986 environmental study estimated Groom Mine’s worth to be more than US$13 million.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/df4e18091c1030ea91336baa22f7dfa8
The US air force says it wants the Sheahan land to establish a secure buffer zone for Area 51. Picture: SuppliedSource:



http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/d5ec364d2f6e983c2d66079bb9f18ee5
The Extraterrestrial highway was established in 1996 and runs along the eastern border of Area 51Source:News Limited

[timosman]

http://www.lasvegasnow.com/news/government-takes-familys-land-near-area-51


Private land overlooking the secret base at Area 51 has officially been taken from the owners and transferred to the United States Air Force.

Last month, the U.S. Air Force condemned the Groom Mine property when the family who owns it rejected a government buyout they felt was unjust.

The I-Team broke the story of the family's fight with the government.

The Sheahan family, which until now owned the mine, knew they faced an uphill fight. They also expected the government would probably take the land through eminent domain even though the Sheahan's owned it since Abe Lincoln was in the White House.

Now -- literally with the stroke of a pen -- a federal judge has turned the land over to the U.S. Air Force. The only part of the fight left for the Sheahan family now is compensation and what will happen to the equipment, buildings, even human remains, still at the site.

In the remote central Nevada desert, the Groom mine has been an island of private property surrounded by a vast government buffer zone. The buffer zone is patrolled by security troops to prevent people from getting a look at the secret test base at Groom Lake -- better known as Area 51.

The family who owns the mine overlooking Area 51 has been at odds with the air force, which condemned the property last month, after the family declined a $5.2 million buyout.

"I have a geologist friend who I took out there, who's just a buff, and he said it is literally almost priceless," said Barbara Sheahan, Groom Mine heir. "There is so much there, not only the ore which is in the ground that can be mined, but in all the intrinsic value of what's on the land."

What's on the land includes buildings, mining equipment and the remains of kin who worked the mine since the family acquired it in the 1870s.

There's also the question of indignities suffered by the family from nearby government testing including buildings strafed by military planes and radiation drifting downwind from above ground nuclear shots in 50s and 60s.

"This has been like I said a 60-plus year nothing short of criminal activity on the part of the federal government, the AEC, Black Ops, CIA and you can go on and on," said Joe Sheahan, Groom Mine heir.

On Sept. 16, federal Judge Miranda Du signed the order in the condemnation case giving possession of the Groom Mine property to the United States government. The Sheahan's have asked for a jury trial, but the issues will be limited to how much the air force must pay for the land and the disposition of the equipment and personal property left on the site.

"There's nothing fair, there's nothing anything remotely close to that involved in this process," said Joe Sheahan.

"But there never has been either, so it's nothing new. But we would like to change it at least to get our stuff out and be paid the value," Barbara Sheahan said.

The air force made its final, $5 million offer to the Sheahan family after concluding that the security and safety of defense testing in that area made private land ownership impossible.

It the condemnation case, the air force values the land at only $1.5 million.

The Sheahan's say it's worth much more than that considering the value of the minerals in the mine, the abuses the family has suffered over decades and the land' s historical significance.

[dannno]

The Sheahans claim a 1986 environmental study estimated Groom Mine’s worth to be more than US$13 million.


The family who owns the mine overlooking Area 51 has been at odds with the air force, which condemned the property last month, after the family declined a $5.2 million buyout.


It the condemnation case, the air force values the land at only $1.5 million.

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[NoOneButPaul]

If I was them I would have taken the 5.2 and called it a day. They're going to kick all of these people to the curb eventually. Take what you can get and get out of their way - you're dealing with an Area the government won't even admit exists you cannot win in this scenario.

[luctor-et-emergo]

I'd have taken the 5.2 and disappeared to a nicer climate. There is a time to stand and there is a time to take the best chance you have. 5.2 sure gives you the option to retire on some nice acreage in pretty much any deserted place.

Then again, I do have a lot of respect for people who put their own interests aside simply because something is unfair. LOTS of respect. I couldn't do it. I'd have taken the money.

[ZENemy]

We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.

[idiom]

Full blown communist states in India and China can't build highways where they want when people won't sell. In India, its because its in *the Constitution*

America, land of the free and other bullshit.

[The Northbreather]

I'd have taken the 5.2 and disappeared to a nicer climate. There is a time to stand and there is a time to take the best chance you have. 5.2 sure gives you the option to retire on some nice acreage in pretty much any deserted place.

Then again, I do have a lot of respect for people who put their own interests aside simply because something is unfair. LOTS of respect. I couldn't do it. I'd have taken the money.

Seems like this was their nice acreage in a deserted place before uncle came a knockin..

[Spikender]

Fuck Government.

[jonhowe]

Full blown communist states in India and China can't build highways where they want when people won't sell. In India, its because its in *the Constitution*

America, land of the free and other bullshit.

Eminent domain IS in our constitution. It's being massively abused, yes, but it's there.

[Anti Federalist]

Now -- literally with the stroke of a pen -- a federal judge has turned the land over to the U.S. Air Force. The only part of the fight left for the Sheahan family now is compensation and what will happen to the equipment, buildings, even human remains, still at the site.

That's the tyranny we live under now, all legal and full CONstitutional.

[ZENemy]

Fuck Government.

And their little gods too.