Edit*** I've created Howard his very own Facebook page and I ask that if you have a suitable public location for him,… Posted by Bridget Matewish on Friday, March 1, 2019

Are you interested in your very own roadside attraction? The 7.91-metre ESSO gnome, “Howard,” that is situated at a Chevron in Nanoose Bay will likely be removed at the end of next month unless it can find a new owner, according to Bridget Matewish. Matewish is the granddaughter of Ron Hale, the man who constructed the statue back in 1998.The gnome was a mascot for a go-kart track and amusement park at the same site. Matewish wrote in a Facebook post that Hale built the gnome in his garage “using scraps of garbage and junk we had laying around our property.” After the park closed, the gnome became the gas station mascot and remained after the gas station was sold. In 2009, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Howard as the world’s largest at 7.91 metres (25 feet, 11 inches). Matewish said the gnome has fallen into a state of disrepair. She added that the Chevron station originally agreed to repair him after she approached them with the idea to fundraise the costs of fixing Howard but have now decided it will be torn down. “We want to find him a new home, somewhere people can still visit him, take photos with him and for Bruce and Ron Hale to live on through him. We don’t want to see him torn down and thrown out,” Matewish said on Facebook. Anyone who knows of a place the gnome could go is asked to message Howard, the World’s Tallest Gnome Facebook page.