The Real Reason American Pickers Never Visited Montana

With over 20 seasons and 300 episodes under its belt, "American Pickers" has done a lot more than just showcase different antiques. It's also shown much of this great country as Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz would drive to the middle of nowhere if they had a good feeling they could score some valuables in the process. Fritz may have left the show, but the singular mission of finding treasure remains the same.

Through the show, audiences really get to see just how expansive the United States is. From huge cities to houses located in the middle of a giant grassland, it seems on the surface that the team has been practically everywhere at this point. As it turns out, the "American Pickers" crew still has quite a few states to mark off their checklists. 

Some states, like Alaska and Hawaii, are too far out of the way. Others, like Arizona and New Mexico, have dry climates that aren't good for preserving wooden antiques. While Montana would seem like ideal territory for Wolfe, it may come as a surprise to fans to hear that the team has never visited The Treasure State.

The show has never explicitly stated why the team has never made it out to Montana. However, one Redditor has come up with a reasonable explanation as to why Montana remains unpicked. They write, "Alaska, Montana, and Wyoming make sense because of their low populations compared to the sheer size of each state." Montana has a population of just over 1 million individuals in a land area of 147,000 square miles. That's a lot of ground to cover, especially when you get into some of the smaller counties that don't have as many people in it. 

It's possible the team just doesn't feel like driving through a bunch of backroads on the off chance they'll uncover some valuables. Of course, that doesn't mean Wolfe and the team have ruled Big Sky Country out entirely. They could always make the trip to Billings, the most populous city in the state with around 100,000 people. There's a much better chance there are hidden treasures in an area like that. Perhaps they'll even dedicate an entire episode to Montana finds when they finally realize there are fortunes to be made out there.

For now, Montana is unexplored land ripe for the picking.