Search for B.C.'s best roadside attraction: Round 1, Vancouver Island
CBC is hosting a bracket-style competition to determine the best roadside attraction in British Columbia, Canada. The initiative explores the history of car culture and the role these attractions play in local tourism and regional identity.
Why it matters
The project highlights the cultural significance of mid-20th-century roadside infrastructure and its ongoing role in modern tourism.
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 .
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