Scofield » From the porch of their summer cabin, Paul Mancina and his sister, Judy Lamb, can look out over Scofield Reservoir and see all the way back to the 1950s.

But now the federal government says the pair and their extended family -- four generations who have celebrated their lives along the shores of the mountain lake -- must get out.

"We feel devastated and cheated," said Judy Lamb as she looked over photos of her family at the cabin down through the years.

Although the Price-based Mancina clan believed it held a valid deed and has paid property taxes on the small Scofield acreage for more than a half century, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation claims their house and perhaps dozens of others around the reservoir pose a grave danger to folks living in Helper and Price.

A massive flood -- occurring on average every 2,500 years -- could pull cabins and houses into the Scofield Dam spillway, causing the structure to fail, officials contend. That would result in catastrophic loss of life downstream along the Price River.

The Mancinas, and others, find such a scenario farfetched.

Homeowners around the reservoir have bumped heads with the federal government off and on since the mid-'70s. The confrontations arise from a plethora of real estate transactions dating from 1927 that gave rise to a variety of deeds.

A decade ago, the Bureau of Reclamation filed suit against

Bruce Lee Dunn, who lives just up the shore from the Mancinas, when Dunn began building a house. Mancina and a few others on the eastern shore near the dam were eventually enjoined in the suit.

In 2007, Judge Ted Stewart, U.S. District Court for Utah, ruled the federal government held legal title to the land, but that Dunn, Mancina and others had "use rights" that emanated from those 1927 transactions. The ruling implied the homeowners could stay put.

However, earlier this year the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver agreed with the Bureau of Reclamation that the Mancinas and their neighbors had no use rights. That, according to U.S. Justice Department attorney Chris Rich, means they are trespassing.

It also casts a cloud over homeowners at various other developments on the reservoir, including the Bolotus subdivision, Scofield West and Campsite, that were not part of the litigation but could be subject to the court's findings.

It's heart-rending for everyone who has invested their lives around the reservoir, said Judy Lamb.

"My dad bought this place from the Madsen brothers. We paid to bring power in. We put in the wells and a septic system. And the federal government never said a word," she said. "I'm so glad my mom and dad aren't here to see this. It would break their hearts."

Paul Mancina can't understand why the Bureau of Reclamation wants to evict them after so many decades.

"If they knew they owned it since the mid-1940s, why would they allow us to invest all this money here?"

The Mancina family has one legal move left, but it looks to be a long shot. They have filed a writ of Mandamus in federal court asking that the Bureau of Reclamation be required to answer their petition for "color of title," a provision that could allow ownership after 20 years of habitation and improvements.

But Bureau of Reclamation officials see the legal matter as all but resolved, if their meeting Thursday evening in Price is any barometer.

In a large auditorium at the Carbon County Fairgrounds, Bureau of Reclamation officials reviewed the court case in front of 200 anxious Scofield Reservoir homeowners. The Dunn and Mancina case revealed the federal government owned the land that most of the houses around the reservoir sit upon.

"It's no fun for us to put people out," said Bureau attorney Rich. "But we absolutely must consider the safety factors."

Wayne Pullan, project manager for Reclamation's Provo area, that includes Scofield, invited residents to choose representatives to discuss options and alternatives with federal officials.

In the end, all the structures and mobile homes on federal land without use rights would be removed.

Many in the audience reacted with anger and disbelief.

"You people are making a mistake," said 76-year-old Dean Denison, who's had a place on the reservoir for more than 30 years. "You're trying to take away everything we've worked for. You're trying to take our lives away from us."

Other homeowners, like Robert Miller, promised a fight. "You're not going to take my place," Miller said. "I've been paying taxes on it."

Pullan, the bureau project manager, said no time-frame had been set for negotiations with homeowners and that Thursday's meeting carried no legal weight.

"We just want to keep people informed," Pullan said.

csmart@sltrib.com