This South Dakota City Eats The Most McDonald's Quarter Pounders — And Has A Giant Burger Statue To Prove It

There is perhaps no state that adores McDonald's more than South Dakota. More specifically, the town of Rapid City loves the fast food chain's famous Quarter Pounders, possibly more than any other place in the nation. Back in 2020, Rapid City was chosen by McDonald's to be home to its very own statue commemorating the burger's 50th anniversary, beating out North Dakota, Wyoming, and Hawaii in a nationwide contest to see which state consumed the most. South Dakota is known for its iconic Black Hills, the location of the Mount Rushmore memorial highlighting former U.S. presidents. Therefore, it does seem quite fitting that the state would also house a fan-favorite traditional American food. 

The Rapid City location, which rests off Cheyenne Boulevard by Interstate 90, was picked for the Golden Arches' cheeseburger shrine because the town reportedly eats the most Quarter Pounders with Cheese in the United States. The effigy is a popular tourist stop and a delicious tribute to the longevity (and the glory) of the renowned burger. While the actual number of Quarter Pounders residents of Rapid City consume annually is unknown, the city scarfs down the most burgers per capita (via Rapid City Journal). Wendy Walla, the owner of the McDonald's location, dished her thoughts concerning why her store was chosen for the monstrous henge. "We sell a lot of beef in this part of [the] country," she told Kota TV, "and then it narrowed down to us just because we have a great location."

To celebrate the half-century birthday of the Quarter Pounder's inception in February 2020, the 23,000-pound bronze statue was revealed at Rapid City's Cheyenne Blvd. location. The mammoth mold skyrockets at nine feet tall and measures eight feet wide. The statue's weight corresponds to about 92,000 individual McDonald's burgers. Yum! The gigantic sculpture sits on top of a slab that reads "The Quarter Pounder with Cheese," with an inscription below that adds "calidum et deliciose succosum." The line is written in Latin and, hilariously but poetically, translates in English to the phrase "hot and deliciously juicy."

When it came to designing the sculpture, Utah-based artist Raymond Gibby tackled the burger monument, while the mount itself was manufactured by Bott Monument of Riverton, Wyoming. Construction on the novelty architecture monument took about 1,800 hours to be completed. So, how did this legendary sandwich become so popular that a statue would be erected of it? You may not know that the Quarter Pounder with Cheese first hit the menu in 1973. However, the version sans the dairy made its debut in 1971, produced by restaurateur Al Bernardin at his Fremont, California, McDonald's chain store. Soon, the burger took off, and it has since been a main staple of the fast food joint, beloved by customers of all ages for decades, especially in Rapid City, South Dakota.