The Ten ‘Most Redneck Cities’ in Missouri and Illinois

If you spend any time on the Internet, I'm sure you've run across any number of websites or Facebook posts with all manner of top ten lists - from best towns to live to best restaurants to worst places to fish on alternate Thursdays. The latest contribution that we've run across comes from a website known as roadsnacks.net. They have compiled lists of the Ten Most Redneck Cities in Missouri and Illinois. A couple of area towns made the list.

For the Ten Most Redneck Towns in Missouri, Hannibal made the top ten, coming in at number nine, while Jacksonville finished number five among the most redneck cities in Illinois.

According to RoadSnacks' Frederick Marksman, among the criteria used in compiling the list included: more than 5,000 population, the least amount of high school graduates, number of dive bars, number of mobile home parks per capita, number of tobacco stores per city, number of guns and ammo stores per city, along with proximity to Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops and Dollar Generals.

In the Hannibal portion of the article, Marksman wrote:

"Hannibal is the boyhood home of Mark Twain, perhaps the most popular writer of redneck fiction in the entire world. You can bet that Huckleberry Finn was based on the experiences of his life growing up in Hannibal.

And, they have a Golden Corral here, so bonus points to you. Cause rednecks know the best deal in town is the 'all you can eat catfish fritters and spuds.'"

Heading up the list of Missouri redneck cities was Branson. I spent some time in Branson and, looking at the criteria, this does not come as a surprise. They led the survey in most tobacco stores and most fishing/bait shops per capita. Plus, they have two Walmarts, with a third one in nearby Branson West, a Bass Pro Shops, and a Golden Corral (where Barbara Fairchild performs nightly).

Someone in the office wondered if the list would have been affected if meth production was taken into consideration.

For the Ten Most Redneck Towns in Illinois, here's how Jacksonville was portrayed:

"Jacksonville was ranked as the number one fishing spot in Illinois by Field and Stream Magazine. You can tell why; there are a lot of areas to throw in a line here, including Lake Jacksonville, which has produced some great channel cats, largemouth bass and bluegill. Jacksonville is a short drive west of Springfield. And Springfield has a Golden Corral, which means you might see lots of Fords and Chevys driving through town every day around supper time."

Topping the Illinois list of redneck cities was the southern Illinois community of Vandalia.

The articles included lists of the top 100 Redneck Towns. No other western Illinois cities made the list. However, in Missouri, Kirksville made the list at 27, Macon and Mexico were numbers 40 and 41 and Bowling Green weighed in at number 60.