Where Science Meets the Sacred -- and the Unknown - Travis Dean

Travis Dean didn't just find a piece of land. If you believe — and after hearing him, it's hard not to — the land found him. The snake didn't strike. The Jeep held him in that wash until the call came through. The Golden-Eye People called to him in dreams. And somehow, a data scientist who models disasters for a living ended up becoming exactly what this desert needed: an Earthkeeper.

We talk about some of the interesting things Travis has experienced after buying the property. "You saw something on screen — a golden light disc — and before you could finish saying "what is that," it was gone.

Travis Dean is a cancer survivor, engineer, and data scientist specializing in disaster communications recovery. Coming out of chemotherapy in 2018, he began seeing the world, and its data, differently. Years of modeling hurricanes, pandemics, and large-scale crises while watching warnings go ignored pushed him toward something more tangible than analysis.

That conviction led Travis to 160 acres of remote Arizona desert and the founding of the Jackson Earth Restoration & Research Center, a 501(c)(3) named for his dog and rooted in a simple belief: science and stewardship belong together. The Center advances climate adaptation through biocrust cultivation, pollinator monitoring, and disaster modeling, while creating living memorials through ceremonial plantings, dedicated groves, and community-driven acts of legacy.

In the Lakota tradition, Mitakuye Oyasin — "all my relations" — is both a prayer and a worldview. It holds that every being, every animal, every rock, every river is part of one sacred, interconnected family. Travis may not have known that phrase when he nearly stepped on that rattlesnake at sunrise. But he backed away with respect. And the land noticed.

The Jackson Earth Restoration & Research Center is growing — literally. The next community planting event is November 2026, and Travis is looking for people who feel it too. People who are compassionate, committed, and done waiting for someone else to act.

Connect with Travis and the Project:

• 🌐 jacksonerp.org
• 📺 YouTube
• 🦋 BlueSky
• ☕ Buy Travis a Coffee

And keep an eye out for the Golden-Eye Children — the portrait tells you everything words can't.