LIST: The 100 Most 'Redneck' Cities in California

The collective minds of the Internet have assembled all sorts of lists for us to associate — or disassociate — ourselves and loved ones with. There are lists for the nicest cities, the snobbiest places to live, the most educated towns; and heck, we even saw a list for the “drunkest” cities recently.

Well, here’s a new one for y’all. The Most Redneck Cities.

The good people over at RoadSnacks.com recently compiled such a list for the Golden State, taking into account things like the size of the community and the amount of high school graduates in said community. They also threw in some stereotypical criteria, like:

• Number of bars per city
• Number of mobile home parks per capita
• Number of tobacco stores per city
• Number of places to get fishing gear
• Number of guns and ammo stores per city
• Walmarts, Golden Corrals, Bass Pro Shops, and dollar stores nearby

After all of that, are you ready for the moment of truth? Drumroll, please.

Here’s what the creators of the “study” at RoadSnacks had to say about the top 5 communities:

• Oroville: 15,489: Whoo-whee, Oroville! You have the official bragging rights as being named the most redneck city in the entire state of California. You may now brag to your friends and share this endlessly on your Facebook walls.Let’s see why. First off, it’s very blue collar here. Nearly 1 in 4 people in Oroville didn’t finish high school. And it’s 75% white. Does that mean redneck? Not always.But when you have one of the highest concentrations of places to buy guns, tobacco and you’ve got a Walmart, now we’re talkin’. In fact, have you looked at Oroville on a map?Located in the hills, about 3 or 6 beers north of Sacramento, Oroville is smack dab in fishing central. They’ve got their own lake here, and nearby are plenty of mountainous areas where Oroville rednecks can shoot at all kinds of stuff. Bears, coons, squirrels, you name it.Add it all up, and Oroville is redneck central.

• Barstow: 22,836: Yes, siree, there’s plenty of rednecks in the boonies of Barstow, that’s fer damn sure. It’s just a short pickup drive outside of the Inland Empire.Barstow is just crawling with rednecks. There are just about as many trailer parks and mobile home parks per capita than anywhere else in the state. You can just picture all the Barstow necks out here, shootin’ their guns, driving their needlessly large trucks around, crushing cases of Coors Lights till the light of day.They build dollar stores where the customers want them. There are at least 5 in Barstow. There is simply no excuse for a Barstow redneck to show up to an Apple Valley barbecue empty handed.

• Big Bear Lake: 5,085: Anyone who grew up in Southern California probably would agree with this assessment. Big Bear Lake folks are the step cousins of the Barstow necks. They’re actually not too far away. In fact, on a clear night, they can probably see one another shootin off their shotguns every 4th of July.Of course, there’s endless fishing here. What does a redneck do with a catfish? What do you think they do with it. They shove their hand down its throat and take a picture with it.There are also more bars per capita than anywhere else in the state. That means when a BBR (Big Bear Redneck) gets tossed out of one bar, he can just mosey down the road and holler at the next one.The number of tobacco stores – what we refer to as the ‘chew factor’ – is sky high. Big Bear Lake’s chew factor is a 5.

• Sacramento: 467,467: Well I’ll Be. The state capital is full of rednecks? You betcha.When you look at the sheer number of Walmarts and dollar stores in the area, you’ll understand why. There are at least 10 Walmarts within a short hop in the truck, and the number of dollar stores is through the roof. 40 maybe? Too hard to count them all.Most of Sacramento is very blue collar – white folks with basic education levels. And remember that study that came out a couple of years ago that ranked the most redneck cities in the nation? Sacramento came in 8th.

• Red Bluff: 14,063: If you’ve ever driven up the 5 north of Sacramento, you’ve passed through the redneckery that is Red Bluff. It’d be hard to miss. Lots of big trucks, loud country music blarin’. Places to get guns, ammo and bait.There are also quite a few number of bars in Red Bluff. They might call them saloons up here, but you get the point. Fact is, you’d be hard pressed to find a more concentrated number of good ole’ boys in the state of California.

And for those of you who would like the full list (I mean, you need to know which of your friends are the biggest rednecks, right?!), here you go:

1. Oroville
2. Barstow
3. Big Bear Lake
4. Sacramento
5. Red_Bluff
6. Yreka
7. Perris
8. Redding
9. Hayfork
10. Fresno
11. Solvang
12. Fort Bragg
13. Westlake Village
14. Corte Madera
15. Woodside
16. St. Helena
17. Willows
18. Crescent City
19. Castroville
20. Loomis
21. Lakeside
22. Cotati
23. Marina Del Rey
24. Sausalito
25. Sebastopol
26. Pismo Beach
27. Fairfax
28. Emeryville
29. Cambria
30. Aptos
31. Thousand Palms
32. Soquel
33. Indian Wells
34. Capitola
35. Joshua Tree
36. Oceano
37. Taft
38. Cherry Valley
39. Tiburon
40. Villa Park
41. Rolling Hills Estates
42. Escalon
43. El Cerrito
44. Winters
45. Bermuda Dunes
46. Anderson
47. Calimesa
48. Williams
49. San Martin
50. Boulder Creek
51. Pollock Pines
52. Boulder Creek
53. Jamul
54. Ojai
55. Gustine
56. Lucerne Valley
57. Rio Vista
58. Woodlake
59. Valley Center
60. Lake Arrowhead
61. Ione
62. Gridley
63. Mentone
64. Templeton
65. Fowler
66. Guadalupe
67. Hughson
68. Ben Lomond
69. Cloverdale
70. Kentfield
71. Colusa
72. Montecito
73. Orland
74. Midway City
75. Rodeo
76. Kensington
77. Keyes
78. Waterford
79. Gonzales
80. Homeland
81. Nuevo
82. Durham
83. Crestline
84. Gold River
85. Earlimart
86. Heber
87. Huron
88. Palermo
89. Acton
90. Orosi
91. Corning
92. Holtville
93. Firebaugh
94. Calipatria
95. Running Springs
96. Topanga
97. Orange Cove
98. Oasis
99. Bret Harte
100. Oak Hills

(Patch file photo by Renee Schiavone)