Ross Calvin, founder of Parhelion and the American Colossus Foundation, launched a March 2024 Bitcoin crowdfunding campaign to raise $450 million for a 450‑foot Prometheus statue and underground museum on Alcatraz. To date, the Geyser Fund page shows just one donor and $5 pledged, and the project exists only in digital renderings on X. Building on Alcatraz would require reclassification as a national monument, federal approval and lengthy environmental review; the National Park Service has received no formal proposal. Calvin says he hopes to show renderings to former President Trump’s team, though Trump has floated reopening Alcatraz as a prison, complicating prospects.
450‑Foot Prometheus on Alcatraz: $450M Campaign Has Raised Just $5 and Exists Only in Digital Renderings
Ross Calvin, founder of Parhelion and the American Colossus Foundation, launched a March 2024 Bitcoin crowdfunding campaign to raise $450 million for a 450‑foot Prometheus statue and underground museum on Alcatraz. To date, the Geyser Fund page shows just one donor and $5 pledged, and the project exists only in digital renderings on X. Building on Alcatraz would require reclassification as a national monument, federal approval and lengthy environmental review; the National Park Service has received no formal proposal. Calvin says he hopes to show renderings to former President Trump’s team, though Trump has floated reopening Alcatraz as a prison, complicating prospects.
06:13, 08.11.2025Culture
Prometheus Statue on Alcatraz Remains Digital After More Than a Year
More than a year after announcing an ambitious plan to erect a 450‑foot statue of the Greek Titan Prometheus on Alcatraz Island, the project's backer has raised only $5 toward a $450 million goal.
Ross Calvin, founder of Denver bitcoin‑mining firm Parhelion and head of the American Colossus Foundation, launched the campaign on Geyser Fund, a Bitcoin‑based crowdfunding platform, in March 2024. The proposal—marketed as "The Great Colossus of Prometheus"—calls for a nickel‑bronze monument and an underground "Prometheion" museum intended to celebrate technology, entrepreneurship and human ingenuity.
“Prometheus is the liberator of mankind. He is the first freedom fighter,” Calvin wrote recently on X, portraying the Titan as an emblem of "the vision for technology and entrepreneurship, the capacity to overcome great hardship, and the willful expending of one's life in service of powerful, creative and noble acts."
According to the foundation's Geyser Fund page, only one donor has pledged a total of $5, and the so‑called Great Colossus currently exists only as digital renderings shared on X. At 450 feet tall, it would rise about 150 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty.
The proposal has also inspired other speculative, AI‑driven concepts—ranging from a Department of Defense university in the Presidio called the Frontier Academy to a proposed arch in Washington, D.C.—but none of these projects are formal plans under review.
Legal and Practical Hurdles
Alcatraz Island is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and is managed as a national park. Building a large monument there would require reclassifying the site as a national monument, a step that needs federal approval and extensive environmental review.
The National Park Service says it has not received a formal proposal for the Prometheus project. Calvin has said he hopes to present renderings to former President Donald Trump’s team early next year, but that outreach could be complicated: Trump has publicly suggested reopening Alcatraz as a high‑security federal prison for violent offenders and people he calls unlawful entrants, an idea reportedly under study by federal engineers and site assessors.
Where Things Stand
At present, the Prometheus project remains a digital concept with minimal financial backing and significant regulatory obstacles. Whether it grows into a serious proposal or simply joins the growing list of AI‑age art fantasies will depend on funding, federal approvals and public support.