Jack Link’s, a popular manufacturer of beef jerky, came up with a grand way to celebrate National Jerky Day this year. They organized the construction of ‘Meat Rushmore’, an all-meat replica of the popular American monument, Mount Rushmore. The 13 foot by 17 foot structure was unveiled in New York City on June 12, as a part of the Jerky Day celebrations.

The humongous meat mountain took 1,400 hours to assemble – it is covered in over 1,600 pounds of beef, pork and turkey jerky. If you were to lay out all the meat used in a single line, you’d end up with close to 10 kilometers of jerky. The core of the sculpture was hand carved using foam, and then each layer of jerky was individually applied over it. Over 20 staff members worked on the project, supervised by art director Alex Valhouli.

“The big challenge with meat sculpting is that it hasn’t been done before,” said Alex. “You can’t possibly know what to expect.” But the company has attempted a similar publicity stunt before. In 2012, they celebrated Jerky Day by creating portraits of ‘Barack Obameat’ and ‘Meat Romney’ using jerky.

This year, Meat Rushmore was displayed in public between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m on June 12, after which it was shipped back to Jack Link’s headquarters in Minong, Wisconsin.

Photos: Jack Link’s Jerky