E-Paper
Town with one resident sold for $900k
Billed as the smallest town in America, Buford, Wyoming, was sold at auction Thursday for $900,000 to a Vietnamese national who wants to remain anonymous.
Billed as the smallest town in America, Buford, Wyoming, was sold at auction Thursday for $900,000 to a Vietnamese national who wants to remain anonymous.
Twenty-five bidders signed up for the auction, held online and on-site, of the town with its three-bedroom house, school, gas station and other buildings.
Buford’s last inhabitant and the owner of the buildings, Don Sammons, 61, said the package went to a Vietnamese man from Ho Chi Minh City.
“He actually flew here from Vietnam. He was on site,” said Sammons.
The winner had to battle it out with bidders from Hong Kong, New York, Florida, Kansas and Wyoming.
“I’m happy and I’m sad all at once. But I’m more happy than sad because this is all I wanted. I can continue and start the next chapter of my life,” he said, adding that he planned to go someplace with sandy beaches for a week or two before writing a book about his life in Buford.
The former railroad stop once was home to about 2,000 people. But they started moving away after train service ended, until the sign at the entrance to town read, “Buford. Population: 1.”
