Frank Van Zant, A World War II veteran from Oklahoma, came to Nevada in 1969. As a self-identified Creek Indian he took the native American name Rolling Mountain Thunder after he experienced an epiphany.
He began building the Monument.

The site covers five acres on the south side of a 1000-foot stretch of Interstate 80 near Imlay, NV.
There were originally seven buildings, including a three-story hostel where many hippies stayed in the 1970s.

Some sculptures are built from found objects, such as car hoods, dolls’ heads, typewriters, and gas pumps, many of which are incorporated into the buildings themselves.
The site was partially destroyed by arson in 1983, the same year Van Zant was named Nevada’s Artist of the Year.

Van Zant committed suicide by shooting himself in the head in 1989.
After his dead the monument was subject to vandalism until it was declared a Nevada State Historic Site in 1992

It is now under the care of his grown children under the aegis of a State of Nevada Historic Site Restoration Project.
The Monument is partially open to the public for self-guided walking tours.