The project was started in 1988 as a way to bring tourism and promote economic development. The 12 memorials depict a diverse group of figures from the region’s history. Three of these memorials, Fray Garcia de San Francisco, the Equestrian and Susan Magoffin were completed during his lifetime. A fourth sculpture of Benito Juarez is in process and will be completed by Mr. Houser’s son Ethan.

John Houser was born in South Dakota where his father was assistant sculptor on Mt. Rushmore. John's talent honed by studies in America and Europe, has evolved into a unique vision of the world. Trained equally as a painter and sculptor, he wields both idioms with unusual aesthetic force. John dedicated his talent to interpreting the "human condition" through living and working amoung such diverse groups as the Gullah Blacks of South Carolina, Italian street fakirs, hippies, migrant workers, Gypsies and Native Americans.

Apart from monumental commissions and studio sculputre (including portraiture), he is also an award-winning painter of landscapes, still life and the figure. The artist has exhibited in the United Sates and abroad. His work is in prominet collection including the US Library of Congress, Greenshields Museum (Montreal), The Southwest (Tucson), and the Portland Museum of FIne Arts (Oregon). His art has been feature in The New York Time, London Sunday Telegraph, ABS (Spain), Der Spiegel (Germany), Southwest Art, Connoisseur Magzine, Artes de México (magazine) and The Houston Chronicle. He is a professional member of the National Sculpture Society. Recently he has vitalized monumental art with this same sense of immediacy and power.

Houser is the originator and creator of the XII Travelers Memorial of the Southwest Inc. for El Paso, Texas. With over 400 years of history memorialized at the Pass of the North, his audacious interpretation of this tumultuous history is controversial as well as profoundly moving. The centerpiece is a colossal equestrian of Don Juan Oñate, the founder of the Camino Real and colonizer of New Mexico who arrived at "the Pass" in 1598. Oñate's exploits (controversial in themselves) left a legacy of undeniable impact upon the region. In creating this work John has been assisted by his son, and colleague, Ethan Houser who's growing stature as an artist is a rare echo of those generational traditions that grace the history of art from ancient Greece to the present.