Search for B.C.'s best roadside attraction: Round 1, Vancouver Island

From goats on the roof to Mr. PG, what's the best of B.C.'s weird and wonderful roadside attractions?

Across British Columbia they stand, sometimes tributes to our province’s geography and history, and sometimes just the product of commerce and marketing.

A lake or a waterfall. A giant gnome or a gold pan. A forest full of enchantment or a roof full of goats.

Every province and state has roadside attractions — a stop just off the highway that offers travellers a temporary diversion — and their development in British Columbia mirrored what happened elsewhere.

Are Canada's giant roadside attractions worth keeping?

"It’s really in the mid-20th century when the age of railway travel is sort of in decline and mass automobile ownership is on the rise and people are touring that there becomes a competition for tourists' attention and for their business," said Ben Bradley, a history professor and author of British Columbia by the Road: Car Culture and the Making of a Modern Landscape.

"Sometimes it's directly to get people to come spend money at a particular business. Sometimes the attraction is something that's free, it's like a public good. But the hope is that you're going to spend some time here and patronize our businesses for lunch and maybe just stay over at the nearby auto court or motel."

You can find unique roadside attractions on Vancouver Island and northern B.C., in small towns across the Interior, and almost everywhere you look around Hope.

After determining the best small town, lake, and symbol, the Search for B.C.’s Best Roadside Attraction continues our summer tradition of asking CBC British Columbia readers to vote in a bracket to determine B.C.'s best roadside attraction.

From more than 300 submissions, we created a list of 32 different roadside attractions, which we’ve divided into the following four regions of the province:

Throughout August, voting will take place every Monday to Thursday, with one region featured each week until there’s one finalist from each of the four regions.

They will then compete against each other in the final four, until a champion is crowned before Labour Day.

B.C. roadside attractions go head-to-head in summer bracket

Today's bracket features Vancouver Island. The eight contenders stretch from as far north as the world’s largest burl in Port McNeill and as far south as the Mile Zero display at the end of the Trans-Canada Highway go up against each other in the first round.

Voting is open until 8 p.m. PT on Monday. Cast your ballot — and may the best roadside attraction win.

"You have serious museums competing against giant googly-eyed peaches and giant rockslides and goats," said Bradley.

"It’s a funny thing how everything gets put on one cultural plane."