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.
“We want them to know what they have done over the last 60 years to our family is not acceptable.”
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