Groom Mine, located in
Lincoln County, Nevada
Lincoln County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 5,345. Its county seat is Pioche, Nevada, Pioche. Like many counties in Nevada, it is d ...
, first opened in the 1870s.
Most mining in the area, mostly of
silver chloride
Silver chloride is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ag Cl. This white crystalline solid is well known for its low solubility in water (this behavior being reminiscent of the chlorides of Tl+ and Pb2+). Upon illumination or heating, ...
ores, had finished by 1874.
Groom Mine continued to operate, finally ceasing operations in 1954.
By 1956, official recordings of products of the Groom Mining District, which includes Groom Mine, shows that
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
was the bulk of minerals harvested, which also included of
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
and about of
gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
. During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Groom Mine became surrounded by military activity, which continued into the 21st century.
In the 1950s, the mine was exposed to fallout from nuclear testing that was being carried out at the
Nevada Test Site
The Nevada National Security Site (N2S2 or NNSS), known as the Nevada Test Site (NTS) until 2010, is a United States Department of Energy (DOE) reservation located in southeastern Nye County, Nevada, about 65 miles (105 km) northwest of the ...
.
During the late 20th century, military activities, including the destruction of a mill and the restriction of access to the mine, continued to affect work there.
The United States Government seized the mine under
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
from its previous owners in 2015.
Just compensation was set at $1.204 million by the United States District Court, District of Nevada (Las Vegas), Judge
Miranda Du
Miranda Mai Du (born 1969) is an American judge. Du was nominated by President Barack Obama to the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in 2011, and confirmed by the Senate in 2012. As a district judge, Du has presided over a n ...
presiding.
Background
The rocks in the range date back to the
Paleozoic
The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon.
The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838
by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...
era; the site is also covered by
Tertiary
Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago.
The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...
rocks on its east and north sides. Prior to European exploration, the region was inhabited by
Southern Paiute Native Americans.
Following the discovery of minerals in the
Comstock Lode
The Comstock Lode is a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson, a peak in the Virginia Range in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory), which was the first major discovery of silver ore in the Unit ...
in 1859, prospecting of other areas in Nevada began.
Mining in the area began in the late 1860s, after minerals were discovered in the
Groom Range
The Groom Range is a mountain range in Lincoln County, Nevada. The range was renamed from Naquinta Mountains or Tequima Range in 1864, after Bob Groom, who discovered minerals in the range. It is located within the Nevada Test and Training Range
...
in 1864.
A mining district to organize claims, called Groom District, was formed in 1869.
In 1871, the area was documented in the
Wheeler Survey
The Wheeler Survey, carried out in 1872-1879, was one of the "Four Great Surveys" conducted by the US government after the Civil War primarily to document the geology and natural resources of the American West. Supervised by First Lieutenant (lat ...
.
History
Mining
Human habitation at the Groom Mine site may have begun as early as 1866.
A
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
for the Groom Mine was issued in 1872 and in 1885, the Sheahan family acquired the property.
The mine was three days' travel from
Indian Springs and above sea level, making it very isolated.
According to
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) is a research and public service unit of the University of Nevada and the State Geological Survey. NBMG is also part of the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada ...
in 1998, the property claim, which is commonly referred to as Groom, is officially named "Conception".
In addition to the Conception claim, other claims in Groom Distract were made and held by the Sheahan family.
From 1915 until 1917, the mine was leased to Tom McCormick, who worked the mine.
In September 1917, a miner from
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
who was employed by Groom Mining Company died at the mine. In the mid-to-late 1910s the mine produced silver worth about $250,000. The shipping of mined products became difficult with the closing of the
Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad
The Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad was a railroad built by William A. Clark that ran northwest from a connection with the mainline of the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad at Las Vegas, Nevada to the gold mines at Goldfield. The SPL ...
at the end of that decade, which caused the mine to become temporarily idle. By 1922, the mine had two shafts, the longest being deep.
![Groom Lake Road](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Groom_Lake_Road.jpg)
In 1942, construction of a mill that used a
gravity and flotation method began;
a source later referred to this mill as a
concentration mill
In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', ...
.
By 1951, four people were living at the mine and the concentration mill had been completed.
Ore from Groom Mine, from which lead and silver were extracted, was found to contain
cerussite
Cerussite (also known as lead carbonate or white lead ore) is a mineral consisting of lead carbonate (PbCO3), and is an important ore of lead. The name is from the Latin ''cerussa'', white lead. ''Cerussa nativa'' was mentioned by Conrad Gessner ...
and
galena
Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver.
Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cryst ...
.
Beginning in 1950, roads approaching the mine from the west were closed due to military activities, leading to the Sheahan family and Lincoln County to build a road from the east;
this is referred to as Groom Road in a 1986 report. During the 1950s, mining operations paused due to nearby
nuclear tests
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine nuclear weapons' effectiveness, yield, and explosive capability. Testing nuclear weapons offers practical information about how the weapons function, how detonations are affected by ...
.
In 1954, production from the mine ended due to the destruction of a mill at the mine.
Until 1956, the mine product totaled almost a million dollars in several minerals, including copper, silver, and gold;
In 1977, the
United States Bureau of Mines
For most of the 20th century, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary United States government agency conducting scientific research and disseminating information on the extraction, processing, use, and conservation of mineral ...
valued the output of Groom mine products at $3.75 million
. It was the most productive mine in the Groom Mining District
and had been worked on by three generations of the Sheahan family.
Based on
panning samples near Groom Mine, the area may also contain deposits of
antimony
Antimony is a chemical element with the symbol Sb (from la, stibium) and atomic number 51. A lustrous gray metalloid, it is found in nature mainly as the sulfide mineral stibnite (Sb2S3). Antimony compounds have been known since ancient t ...
,
barium, lead, mercury, and zinc. By 1959, the Sheahan family moved away from the mine but visited their property regularly.
In 1984, the Sheahan family, who still owned the Groom Mine, also had the legal rights to most of the other 22 patented mining claims nearby.
According to the
Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology
The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology (NBMG) is a research and public service unit of the University of Nevada and the State Geological Survey. NBMG is also part of the Mackay School of Earth Sciences and Engineering at the University of Nevada ...
, it was estimated in 1963 that there is of material that can be mined at Groom Mine. A 1990
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...
report stated that due to restricted access to the mine, it would lead to "potential loss of income through inability to expand or further develop the claims". Until late 2015, the Sheahan family periodically blasted for minerals at the mine;
by this time the family had owned the mine for 130 years.
Military interaction
In 1941, Groom Mine was visited by individuals who stayed at the mine with the Sheahan family while surveying the area for a gunnery and bombing range to be used during World War II.
The outhouse and bunkhouse at the mine were accidentally
strafed
Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons.
Less commonly, the term is used by extension to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft such ...
during the war by aircraft using the Las Vegas Bombing and Gunnery Range.
Beginning in the 1950s, Groom Mine began to be impacted by nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site;
Groom Mine was away.
In 1951, the
Atomic Energy Commission informed the Sheahan family of the planned detonations and set up instrumentation at the mine.
The instrumentation was monitored by an employee of the
United States Public Health Service
The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant S ...
, who lived at the mine along with the Sheahan family. The first mention of a nuclear tests impacting operations at Groom Mine was the
Operation Tumbler–Snapper
Operation Tumbler–Snapper was a series of nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States in early 1952 at the Nevada Test Site. The ''Tumbler–Snapper'' series of tests followed ''Operation Buster–Jangle'' and preceded ''Operation Iv ...
Easy Test, which led to the mine being evacuated due to its proximity to the detonation.
Following the detonation, measurements of radiation at the mine reached 0.19
roentgen per hour. It caused some structural damage, breaking the front door of the Sheahan's home.
Further away,
fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
impacted nearby
Tempiute.
Returning to the mine had to be done using a different route; the normal route was too radioactive to travel on. The following Fox test in late May 1952 led to fallout falling on the mine;
the highest-recorded radiation was 0.32 roentgen per hour. It was, however, the view of the Atomic Energy Commission that the nuclear detonations "had not subjected Groom Mine personnel to any real danger from fallout".
By May 1952, most of the Sheahan family had evacuated the mine and moved to
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
.
In July 1952, Martha, a member of the family who had been exposed to fallout, was diagnosed with cancer.
Following
Operation Upshot–Knothole
Operation Upshot–Knothole was a series of eleven nuclear test shots conducted in 1953 at the Nevada Test Site. It followed ''Operation Ivy'' and preceded ''Operation Castle''.
Over 21,000 soldiers took part in the ground exercise Desert Ro ...
, the Sheahan family attempted to sell their claim to the Atomic Energy Commission but it refused, fearing it would set a precedent; instead the family received $1,100 for losses and damages resulting from the
Operation Tumbler-Snapper tests. Following the adverse environmental impact observed by the two remaining family members at the mine caused by
Upshot-Knothole Harry
Upshot–Knothole Harry (UK#9) was a nuclear weapons test conducted by the United States as part of Operation Upshot–Knothole. It took place at the recorded time of 04:05 (05:05 hrs ) hours, on the May the 19th, 1953 in Yucca Flat, in the Nevad ...
, the Atomic Energy Commission said the blasts were designed to produce winds from the testing area towards Groom rather than towards Las Vegas.
During 1953, the property was strafed and during the summer a bomb destroyed the mine's mill;
no specific claim was made by the Sheahan family against the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
(USAF) for the event. In 1954, the mining buildings were strafed by aircraft using
Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range.
In 1956, the Sheahan family and others filed lawsuits against the Atomic Energy Commission because of damage caused by nuclear testing. In 1959, the lawsuit was withdrawn when the Sheahan family ran out of funds to continue legal action.
The property on which the mine is located has a view of an airfield known as
Area 51
Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport ...
.
In the 1970s and 1980s, armed personnel arrived when the Sheahan family came onto their property, sometimes locking them into their own buildings.
![NevadaTestRange 4808A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/NevadaTestRange_4808A.png)
In 1984, the USAF seized lands around Groom Mine,
restricting access to the mine for the Sheahan family.
Some of the Sheahan family were issued with
security clearances
A security clearance is a status granted to individuals allowing them access to classified information (state or organizational secrets) or to restricted areas, after completion of a thorough background check. The term "security clearance" is ...
after 1984.
In 1986, the 1953 mill-destruction event was entered into the record of a subcommittee of the
United States House Committee on Natural Resources
The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources or Natural Resources Committee (often referred to as simply Resources) is a Congressional committee of the United States House of Representatives. Originally called the Committee on Interior and In ...
. In 1987, the position of the United States Air Force was, "we don't want to go in and tell them to get the hell out". In 1989, although it was within the
Nevada Test and Training Range
The Nevada Test and Training Range (NTTR) is one of two military training areas at the Nellis Air Force Base Complex in Nevada and used by the United States Air Force Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base. The NTTR land area includes a "sim ...
, the United States Air Force allowed claimants access to their claims within the Groom Mining District, including Groom Mine.
Government ownership
Beginning in late 2014, the
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...
attempted to purchase the property from the Sheahan family, originally offering $1.5 million.
By August 2015, the USAF had raised the offer to $5.2 million; the family continued rejecting the offers.
In August 2015, a government press release described the mine as a "safety and security risk", even though the Sheahan family had not disclosed any activities of the Groom Lake facility. In September 2015, the commander of the Nevada Test and Training Range stated that the existence of the mine within the range led to "tremendous expense" due to "canceling missions when they came out";
secret operations at the base could not proceed when civilians were present on the Sheahan's property within easy view of the installation. On 16 September 2015, the property was condemned under
eminent domain
Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
and given to the United States Government by a court order signed by federal Judge
Miranda Du
Miranda Mai Du (born 1969) is an American judge. Du was nominated by President Barack Obama to the United States District Court for the District of Nevada in 2011, and confirmed by the Senate in 2012. As a district judge, Du has presided over a n ...
.
It was not determined at the time of transfer of ownership how much the Sheahan family would receive in just compensation for the government acquisition of Groom Mine; the USAF in 2015 estimated the land to be worth $1.2 million. In November 2015, the Sheahan family suggested the mine be protected as a
national historic site; this coincides with a suggestion in a 1980s USAF report that recommended nominating Groom Mining District to be listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
.
By 2016, the USAF only valued Groom Mine at under a third of a million dollars; the Sheahan family's legal counsel valued the property as being worth over $100 million. In 2017, the family claimed they were forced to leave millions of dollars worth of property at Groom Mine following the seizure; part of the property which was abandoned includes an antique anvil that was missing when personal property was reviewed in November 2015. In August 2019, it was reported that the family was hoping to have a jury trial to determine the value of the property. The trial was ultimately conducted in front of a three-member Land Commission. Prior to trial, the landowners accepted the Government's valuation of the mineral interests at $104,000 and went to trial only to contest the value of the surface rights. The landowner's experts valued those rights at $50 million based on the property being developed into a commercial tourism enterprise offering views of Area 51. The Government's experts valued it at $254,000 based on continued use as a rural recreation retreat. On May 29, 2020 the Land Commission ruled that just compensation for the taking of the surface rights is $1,100,000 based on the property's continued use for rural recreation, with a premium over the Government's valuation to account for its view of Area 51 and its historic use as a family owned mining operation.
See also
*
Tikaboo Peak
Tikaboo Peak is the unofficial name for a mountain in Lincoln County, Nevada, United States to the east of Area 51
Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Tr ...
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
*
*
{{Lincoln County, Nevada, state=collapsed
Buildings and structures in Lincoln County, Nevada
Mines in Nevada
1875 establishments in Nevada
2015 disestablishments in Nevada