American Pickers sort through Patterson treasures

Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz, stars of American Pickers on History Channel, spent Wednesday at Ronnie Sanders’ warehouse in Patterson to pick through the treasures he’s been collecting for 50 years and now rents as movie props.
Wolfe and Fritz own Antique Archaeology, with shops in LeClaire, Iowa, and Nashville, Tennessee. The pair travels the country “picking,” their term for digging through rusty and dusty barns, warehouses and homes for treasures reflecting the American experience.
Oh, and they host a wildly popular TV show on the History Channel documenting their travels and finds.
“It takes a year to do one season,” Wolfe said.
The episode filmed at Sanders’ warehouse will be the first of season seven, Wolfe said.
“We’ve been down here before, but Louisiana just keeps us coming back,” he said.
The company has done outreach for the last month, Wolfe explained, and the choice was between Louisiana and Texas for this show segment, but more leads were received from Louisiana.
“Some of the places we hit we know we’re going to stop and we just got done driving around downtown (Patterson). We found an old Triumph motorcycle in some guy’s back yard. We still knock on doors and hand out flyers, but the show is a pretty big machine, so we can’t just completely freestyle like we used to,” Wolfe said.
They’re in the state for two weeks and enjoying the food.
“I’ve already gained 10 pounds since I’ve been here eating down in the French Quarter. All the sauces and everything is fried in butter. It’s good comfort food,” Wolfe said.
Fritz added “Louisiana’s great, and the food’s been fantastic. The people are friendly.”
Wolfe said a typical day starts off with a drive of a couple hours because they stay in a larger town and drive to the small towns often featured on the show. They will spend about an hour driving around the town chosen for the day’s pick.
“We spent probably about an hour driving around town here looking at old buildings. It’s a little bit of a different vibe because we’re surrounded by so much water here. It’s not like when we’re in Kansas where we can drive for miles on land. It’s different but it’s cool and I think that’s what is appealing to the viewer,” Wolfe said.
Then the pick begins.
Sanders, a retired postal worker in Morgan City, “has anything from antique firearms to slot machines to gas pumps to some advertising pieces. He’s got this whole building full of stuff,” Wolfe said.
Sanders said he’s been collecting for about 50 years and often rents his collection out as movie props to Hollywood studios filming in Louisiana.
By lunch, the pickers already purchased a Vendo 44 Coke machine dating to 1950 for $2,500, Sanders said. It’s the most collectable Coke machine model in the world, he added.