Project Mark Grant
Project Mark Grant is the designation used by Gene Decode for the operational program of constructing deep underground military bases (DUMBs) connected by maglev transit systems, corresponding to what William Cooper and the Alternative 3 literature called Alternative 2 — the second of three contingency plans developed in response to predicted environmental collapse. Cooper described Alternative 2 as a plan "to build a vast network of underground cities and tunnels in which a select representation of all cultures and occupations would survive and carry on the human race," with the rest of humanity left on the surface.
Background
The three alternatives originated, per Cooper's testimony, from a 1957 symposium of scientists who concluded that Earth would become uninhabitable by or shortly after the year 2000 due to overpopulation and environmental exploitation. By secret executive order, President Eisenhower tasked the Jason scholars with developing recommendations, which became Alternatives 1, 2, and 3: atmospheric nuclear detonation, underground survival infrastructure, and off-world colonization, respectively. Alternative 1 was dismissed as impractical; Alternatives 2 and 3 were ordered simultaneously.
The scenario entered public awareness through the 1977 Anglia Television broadcast Alternative 3, presented as an investigative documentary, and the 1978 novelization by Leslie Watkins. Gene Decode encountered the Alternative Three book during his early pre-internet research alongside works by John Coleman (The Committee of 300), Cooper, and others, and identified its underground-base component as matching what he had independently researched under the name Project Mark Grant.
Implementation
In 1959, the RAND Corporation hosted the Second Protective Construction Symposium, a 45-paper conference on deep underground construction that Cooper cited as describing tunnel boring machines capable of boring 45-foot-diameter tunnels at five feet per hour. Cooper stated that "these facilities have been built and are ready and waiting for the chosen few to be notified."
The underground construction program materialized as the network of deep underground military bases described by Phil Schneider, Gene Decode, and other researchers — vast facilities connected by vacuum-sealed tunnels serviced by maglev shuttles capable of Mach-range speeds. Gene Decode identified the project as extending beyond survival shelters to include command-and-control infrastructure, with Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska serving as a primary control center for underground tunnel operations.
Relationship to Alternatives 1 and 3
Project Mark Grant (Alternative 2) operated in parallel with Alternative 3 — the off-world colonization program that produced the Mars colonies and the broader secret space program infrastructure. All three alternatives included population control measures as a delaying tactic, including the introduction of deadly microbes. Operation Argus (1958), a series of secret high-altitude nuclear detonations, is consistent with what would have been an attempt at Alternative 1.
The USAF radar community encountered the Alternative Three book during their service; Niara Isley described reading it while still in the military, noting that its depiction of a systematic "brain drain" — the recruitment of professionals for off-world assignments — matched what she and her colleagues observed firsthand.