title: U.S. GOVERNMENT THREATENS ILLEGAL SEIZURE OF FAMILY’S LAND NEAR AREA-51 BASE
text: This case has been on our radar for some time now but will come to a head tomorrow. The government is offering its  last best offer  for the land and they want an answer by Thursday. This family doesn t want to give up their land no matter what the price so we ll see what happens For more than 70 years, since the U.S. government moved to that part of southern Nevada,  they have completely disregarded our constitutional rights    BARBARA MANNINGThe U.S. Air Force is giving an ultimatum to owners of a remote Nevada property now surrounded by a vast bombing range including the super-secret Area 51: Take a $5.2 million  last best offer  by Thursday for their property, or the government will seize it.The answer: No, at least for now.The owners, who trace their mining and mineral claims to the 1870s, include descendants of a couple who lost their hardscrabble mining enterprise after the Air Force moved in in the 1940s. Nuclear tests then began in 1951, their mine mill mysteriously exploded in 1954 and they ran out of money to seek reparations from the government in 1959. What they really want to buy is our property, our access rights and our view,  said Joseph Sheahan, 54, who has led the fight with his cousin, Barbara Sheahan Manning, on behalf of about 20 property co-owners. Both live in Henderson, Nev. We prefer to keep our property, but it s for sale under the right price at the right conditions,  Sheahan said.  Why don t they ask themselves what it cost my family over the years in blood, sweat, tears and money? The two sides are far apart. And they know condemnation proceedings would lead to a  fair market value  determination that could end up in court for a long time.The federal government gradually encircled the mine property   totaling fewer than 400 acres   northwest of Las Vegas, making it a private island reachable today only by passing armed guards at security gateposts. The surrounding secure 4,500-square-mile reservation for nuclear testing, military training and other research is almost twice the area of the state of Delaware. The land has become an increasingly greater safety and security risk as demand for test and training opportunities have increased,  the government said in an Aug. 28 news release describing the final offer.Today, Groom Mine overlooks Groom Lake, a site so secret that Col. Thomas Dempsey, a Nellis Air Force Base commander, would only refer to it on Friday as  one of many remote locations within the Nevada Test and Training Range. Nothing you can look up in any Air Force naming convention refers to Area 51,  added Jennifer Miller, deputy assistant Air Force secretary for installations.But check the Internet or watch TV s  X-Files  and Area 51 and Groom Lake evoke tales of top-secret aircraft research and testing, CIA programs and maybe extraterrestrials. The Triple-A baseball Las Vegas 51s even poke fun at the legend, with the team name and a mascot character named Cosmo.Sheahan family members consider themselves good neighbors and patriotic Americans, with generations of decorated military members, Manning and Joe Sheahan said. They don t tell what they ve seen.But Manning, 59, remembers the tales handed down during decades on the porch of a rustic home overlooking Groom Lake. We didn t have much more than a transistor radio and a deck of cards, and no indoor toilet,  she said.  Our grandparents told us the stories. For more than 70 years, since the U.S. government moved to that part of southern Nevada,  they have completely disregarded our constitutional rights,  Manning said.Read more: Conservative Focus