American Pickers Star's Mission: Saving Rural America's Small Towns

We've posted stories about TV's American Pickers before, when the gang from the History Channel's hit show has wondered through Nebraska. 

Today's article has a different spin -- that is, how the Pickers' Mike Wolfe aims to help save rural America.

Recently, the Des Moines newspaper published an in-depth story on the show's leading man, his Iowa upbringing, and his present mission: to save rural America and its small towns.

Wolfe tells the paper that, “When we lose small towns, we lose everything that we stand for. We lose small business. We lose entrepreneurs. We lose historic properties. We lose pride. We lose jobs.”

But he also deeply believes turnarounds can happen, especially if towns embrace and publicize whatever makes them special. 

According to the story, Wolfe is part of the Preserve Route 66 campaign, publishes a blog about stores and eateries in Small Town U.S.A. and is helping to renovate the rural community he lives in outside Nashville.

On the show, he is slowly trying to feature more of the towns where he does picks, highlighting not just the story of the people or the object, but the place where they live.

In his attempt to share some small-town best practices, Wolfe talked about a young entrepreneur in Kansas who has an antique car business in the middle of nowhere. "How did it survive? Online sales. Ninety percent of his stuff for sale is online."

Wolfe said: “He could be on the moon and he’s selling stuff!”

With that, Wolfe joins the siren call of those asking millennials to think of Brownsville, Texas, or Boise, Idaho, instead of Brooklyn: Cheap living! Simple lifestyle! Historic buildings!

“This is the thing that’s going to save America’s Main Street — are these younger people that understand how important online sales are,” Wolfe says. “If they understand that and they have a business that connects to that, they can be anywhere.”

There's a lesson for Dorchester and similar towns in this Pickers story.