The Capital City is in the running for America's "Most Beautiful" small town. Jefferson City recently entered the final round of Rand McNally's Best of the Road small town competition.
As of Tuesday night, Jefferson City was ranked second (with 3,603 votes) of five finalists for the "Most Beautiful" category. Punta Gorda, Fla., is the current front-runner, with more than 6,000 votes.
In order to choose a winner, Rand McNally will be following social media mentions through Sept. 27. Post pictures and reasons why Jefferson City deserves to win by tagging @BestoftheRoad or #BestoftheRoad on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.
Local social media sites, including the city, Downtown Association and Convention and Visitor's Bureau Facebook pages all encourage support for the contest. The Rand McNally website challenges finalists to take videos and post pictorial tours.
The top five towns in each category will be judged on a number of criteria including the number of votes received on bestoftheroad.com, the overall fit and suitability of the town in the selected category, the town's social participation on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, video or photo tours plus written submissions. So far the city has 34 photos uploaded to the contest website, and 14 reviews.
Winning towns will be announced Oct. 7. The winning towns in each category will receive a feature in the 2015 Rand McNally Road Atlas, as well as a free custom iPhone app and online travel guide promoting the town as a top destination.
Last year's "Most Beautiful" city was Bardstown, Ky. In order to qualify, towns must have a population of less than 150,000. Other contests include cities taking the honor of most fun, friendliest, most patriotic, best for food and best for geocaching. This is the third year for the Rand McNally's "Best of the Road" contest.
More info: www.bestoftheroad.com