Property Overlooking Area 51 Now Belongs To The Air Force

The Sheahan family has lost a battle with the federal government which has resulted in their property which overlooks Area 51 being taken by eminent domain and transferred to the U.S. Air Force.

Never mind that the family has owned the Groom Mine property since just after the civil war.

The Air Force condemned the property last month after the family turned down an offer of $5.2 million for the property, structures, and equipment on the land. There are remains of Sheanan family members who worked the mine over the past 140 years, according to television station KLAS. Barbara Sheahan told the station that an amateur geologist friend of hers has said that the land is "almost priceless" because of the ore that could still be mined on the property, as well as the "intrinsic value of what is on the land" including her relatives' remains.

But the property was also one of the last remaining parcels of private property in the vast buffer zone around Groom Lake ... better known as Area 51. The government has been very secretive about activity at Area 51 since the 1950s, and the land is regularly patrolled by security troops.

The Sheahans have asked for a jury trial to determine how much they will actually be paid for the land. The $5 million offer will likely go by the wayside, as the Air Force valued the land at only $1.5 million in the condemnation case.

The family contends that between the minerals in the ground, the property itself and its historical significance, and the "indignities" caused by things like strafing of buildings on the property by military airplanes and radiation from above-ground nuclear tests in the 50's and 60s ... they are due much, much more.

FMI: www.af.mil