Brace yourself, Wheeling, to lose a big chunk of the travel and tourism money that rolls into town. A fair number of people visit here because there’s lots to do and see, ranging from Oglebay Park to West Virginia Independence Hall, from Cabela’s at The Highlands to the casino on Wheeling Island.

But there may be a new tourist attraction in the Northern Panhandle. By somewhat official designation, New Martinsville is the “most redneck city” in West Virginia.

Sorry, Moundsville, but you only managed eighth place. Others on the top 10 “redneck city” list, in descending order, are Princeton, Elkins, Buckhannon, Charles Town, Fairmont, Hurricane, Grafton and Bluefield.

Thank (or curse) the RoadSnacks website for the list. RoadSnacks, which also has lists of the most dangerous, “snobbiest” and drunkest cities in various states, claim its ratings are intended “to show you the real side of places that not everyone wants to hear. We use data to create bite-sized snacks of shareable information about places and cities across the country. We call it the ‘other’ side of regional infotainment.”

If you’re a West Virginian, you may suspect no one from North Carolina-based RoadSnacks has ever been here. Take a glance back at that list. Most of us can name a few “redneck” towns in the state. And though I’m not going to name names, none of them is in our half of West Virginia.

If you’re interested in RoadSnacks’ methodology, check the website. Suffice it to say their science isn’t exactly settled.

Now, I grew up in New Martinsville, so I have both a stake in the game and a bit more actual knowledge than RoadSnacks of the subject. Though the town has changed much since I lived there, “redneck” probably is the last word many folks would choose for the “Parlor City.” Ditto, by the way, for Moundsville, where I lived for a few years during the 1970s.

Not having conducted a scientific poll, I can’t say how New Martinsville residents view themselves now. But several of my contemporaries who moved away remember it simply as a very, very good place to have grown up.

Still, there may be money to be had from the RoadSnacks designation – at least until tourists actually visit New Martinsville and find out they’ve been had by a website more interested in generating traffic than accuracy. There are lots of them. Princeton Review, anyone?

But if there’s money in it for RoadSnacks, perhaps we can capitalize on this thing, too. It may be that, with the right marketing, we can attract some of the big-city folks to come here looking for rednecks – and leave some of their money behind.

I knew that one day, the mascot for my alma mater, Magnolia High School in New Martinsville, would come in handy. And it will, if we can convince Brad Paisley to write the theme song for our new Northern Panhandle tourist attraction.

“Rednecks and Blue Eagles.” Has kind of a ring to it, doesn’t it?

Myer can be reached at: mmyer@theintelligencer.net.