SANTA ELENA CANYON MONUMENT PROJECT NATIONAL BRIEFING DOSSIER — 2025 A privately funded public monument Uniting art, science, civil rights, technology, service, and national memory Carved into the canyon walls of Texas for future civilizations to discover Project Founder & Benefactor: ANUSH BADII 33 years of public works engineering $100,000 personal seed funding already committed

To: The Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States To: The Honorable Greg Abbott, Governor of Texas Mr. President, Governor Abbott, America is again at a moment where it must decide whether it still builds — not just roads or walls or budgets, but symbols, the kind our descendants would thank us for. The Santa Elena Canyon Monument Project is the first attempt in this century to build such a national symbol — not with taxpayer money, not through political force, but through private American patronage and civic will. I have already committed the first $100,000 of private capital to launch the project. More private donors stand ready — but the project now requires government authorization, recognition, and partnership, not funding. WHAT THIS MONUMENT IS A carved relief monument extending along the canyon wall, honoring the women and men who shaped the 20th and 21st centuries: scientists, civil rights leaders, inventors, astronauts, soldiers, cultural figures. Unlike Mount Rushmore (founding era), this monument represents the Age of Innovation, Rights, and Exploration — the era America is still living through. Individuals are selected for civilizational impact, not ideology. THE ANTI-OBLIVION PRINCIPLE “Every monument eventually falls — Pharaohs lose their faces, bronze is melted for war, Buddhas are blown apart by new empires. So we do not build this to last forever. We build it so that while it stands, it tells the future who we were.” REQUEST • Federal + state joint authorization pathway (not funding) • NPS + IBWC review classification as privately funded monument • Texas cooperation in access, survey, and future visitor logistics • Public acknowledgment that no public money is requested WHY TEXAS, WHY NOW Santa Elena Canyon is the most dramatic unmonumented landscape in the U.S.; the region needs economic development; the project puts Texas workers, materials, and history into the world record; and it reframes the border as art, not argument. If not us — who? If not now — when? — ANUSH BADII Founder & Benefactor, Santa Elena Canyon Monument Project 33 years of public works engineering $100,000 personal seed funding committed

STATUS: Ready for federal + state authorization FUNDING: Private capital (first $100,000 already committed) REQUEST: Government cooperation, not government money SUMMARY A monument carved into Santa Elena Canyon honoring the most influential Americans of the 20th & 21st centuries — scientists, civil rights leaders, inventors, astronauts, artists, soldiers, humanitarians. WHY IT MATTERS • Jobs + Texas economy (construction, tourism, conservation) • Border diplomacy (cultural landmark, not enforcement landscape) • Private funding (zero taxpayer burden) • Historic value (first U.S. monument to honor the innovation era) • Archaeological purpose (discoverable in 3,000 years) GOVERNMENT ACTION • White House + Texas joint recognition • NPS + IBWC classification: privately funded public monument • Texas survey/access + visitor-planning pathway • Congressional Letter of No Objection (no appropriations) FOUNDER DECLARATION “I have personally committed the first $100,000 to prove seriousness.” — Anush Badii

To: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick; Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham; TPWD Executive Director David Yoskowitz WHY TEXAS • The canyon is in Texas; workforce, materials, staging, transport, and tourism are Texas-based. • The monument elevates Big Bend into a global destination. • Texas can claim the first privately funded national-scale monument of the 21st century. REQUEST FROM TEXAS • Allow site access, survey & engineering prep • Participate in joint authorization with federal agencies • Assist with visitor infrastructure planning • Publicly acknowledge project viability ECONOMIC BENEFITS • Multi-year construction labor demand • Permanent tourism corridor in a low-traffic region • Hotel, road, aviation, and park revenue uplift • International visitor draw

To: Senate ENR, Homeland, Foreign Relations; House Natural Resources, Homeland, Space/Science JURISDICTION • National Park Service (Big Bend NP) • IBWC (border river) • DOI/State Dept. coordination PROJECT ASKS • Formal declaration: no federal appropriation required • Recognized pathway for private construction on federal land • Staff-to-agency liaison support (NPS, IBWC, DOI, State) • Congressional Letter of No Objection WHY UNIQUE • First privately financed national-scale monument • Honors innovation era (1900–2100) • Tourism + economic uplift • Designed to be understandable if rediscovered in 3,000 years

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE There will come a day when the statues fall, the inscriptions fade, and the canyon returns to silence. That is the fate of every monument ever built. But before that day comes — we get to decide what the future will remember about us. The Santa Elena Canyon Monument Project exists to carve into the stone of Texas the faces and names of the Americans who transformed the world in the 20th and 21st centuries — not kings, not conquerors, but innovators, liberators, healers, explorers, artists, and defenders. It will be the first national monument funded entirely by citizens — not the government. I have already committed the first $100,000 of my own money. The only thing we are waiting on is permission — not money. If this vision speaks to you — share it, support it, or stand behind it. If not us — who? If not now — when? — ANUSH BADII

There are places in America that feel older than history. Santa Elena Canyon is one of those places. For most of human history, monuments honored rulers. But America was meant to be a civilization of doers. This is not a monument to power. It is a monument to achievement: people who cured disease, expanded rights, invented technology, walked on the Moon, risked their lives, and carried the American imagination. Every monument eventually falls. That is why this one must be built: not to be eternal — but to be discoverable. So that if a future civilization finds only fragments of faces in the canyon wall, they will know who we were in the age of vaccines, moon landings, civil rights, computers, and courage. If not us — who? If not now — when?

CORE PURPOSE To leave a record of who we were — not what we owned or feared, but what we believed. ANTI-OBLIVION PRINCIPLE Nothing lasts forever: pharaohs, bronze, empires, ideologies. We build so that while it stands, it speaks for us — and if rediscovered in ruins, it can still be understood. ARTISTIC MODEL • Hybrid bas-relief (recognizable, not photo-real) • Equal scale for all honorees • Clustered arrangement; no hierarchy • Engraved name + years + 12-word inscription • Living and deceased together • Reserved panels for “Americans Not Yet Born” • No paint/bronze; erosion-friendly; no blasting WHO IS INCLUDED Scientists, civil rights leaders, inventors, astronauts/engineers, culture-bearers, soldiers/first responders, humanitarians. Not perfection — impact.

SITE OVERVIEW • Location: East wall, Santa Elena Canyon (Texas side) • Sculpted length: ~900–1,200 ft (modular) • Height band: 40–120 ft above river • Method: shallow bas-relief (18–36 in), mechanical, no explosives SECTIONS (fluid clusters) A. Science & Medicine — Salk • Hopper • Katherine Johnson • Borlaug • CRISPR pioneers B. Space & Exploration — Apollo 11 crew • NASA mathematicians • future crews plaque C. Civil Rights & Human Dignity — MLK Jr. • Rosa Parks • Susan B. Anthony • Chávez • Harvey Milk D. Service & Sacrifice — Unknown Soldier • Audie Murphy • Doris “Dorie” Miller • 9/11 First Responders E. Imagination & Culture — Walt Disney • Louis Armstrong • Frank Lloyd Wright • Maya Angelou F. Technology & the Future — Steve Jobs • Bill Gates • Internet pioneers • Future Americans (reserved) BASE INSCRIPTION “Every monument falls. Every empire fades. Every carving turns to sand. We built this not to last forever, but to be understood whenever it is found again.”