The U.S. Air Force is threatening government seizure of the Nevada bombing range that includes Area 51 if the owners do not take a $5.2 million offer for the property, according to Yahoo News. The owners are reportedly descendants of a couple who lost their mining business when the Air Force took over the property in 1942.
The owners are currently refusing the deal, claiming the property rightfully belongs to them.
"What they really want to buy is our property, our access rights and our view," said Joseph Sheahan, 54, who continues to fight the Air Force with his cousin, Barbara Sheahan Manning, and 20 other property co-owners.
"We prefer to keep our property, but it's for sale under the right price at the right conditions," said Sheahan. "Why don't they ask themselves what it cost my family over the years in blood, sweat, tears and money?"
The Sheahan family's descendants mined lead, silver and other minerals on the property years before World War II and the Cold War lead to the demand for a safe, remote place to test nuclear weapons, according to the Daily Mail.
Despite the family's arguments, the Air Force claims the matter is outside the realm of personal issues, calling it a matter of national security, according to Fox News.
