A yeast artificial chromosome (YAC) contig located in 6p23 and spanning roughly 2.5 Mb has been constructed from the content of 10 sequence tagged sites (STSs) for YAC clones in 66 yeast colonies. Nine of the STSs have been genetically mapped in CEPH families. The order of STSs mapped with the contig is consistent with that of the genetic map. The order of loci that did not recombine with each other on the genetic map was inferred from the contig. Various regions of the contig are covered by multiple YAC clones that complement observed STS deletions. The STS for the CAG repeat sequence contained in the gene for spinal cerebellar ataxia 1 (gene symbol SCA1) is localized in the contig. It is likely that this gene is located in 6p23. The frequency of chimeric YAC clones in this contig is 35%. Eleven yeast colonies were found to carry two or more YACs. YAC subclones from some of these colonies showed size variation, and for several subclones, evidence consistent with deletion of a sequence tagged site.