RANTOUL, Ill. (WCIA) — Artists in Rantoul are finishing a unique project nearly a year in the making.

This statue’s next steps include making its way to the U of I campus. It’s a 3500-pound and 16-foot tall woolly mammoth.

It started as a 3-D model. Then artists carved foam blocks, added a metal frame, and covered it in epoxy and paint. 

“The size of this and the fact that it’s going someplace local is a little bit different for us, a lot of our work is in other states from coast to coast so having something close to home is really cool,” said Brant Hendricks, Taylor Studios president.

“It’ll go on the semi, cruise on down the road, which might be a sight for some people, and then we will put it in place early next week.”

There aren’t tusks on the animal right now but the artists will add them to the body once it makes its way to campus.

They molded them from real tusks they found in Arizona years ago.