News

The former industrial town of Buford (in Wyoming) has been auctioned off by its only registered resident. Its new owners are two Vietnamese businessmen who have so far declined to reveal their plans for the place. According to the latest census, Buford is the smallest town in the whole of the USA.

There is now just one residence in Buford, one small shop, a petrol station and even a post office with its own zip code.

At one point, the population of Buford reached 2,000 and its existence came about thanks to the construction of a railway track on nearby land in 1860. For decades, most of the town’s inhabitants were railway employees and their families.

The only current resident of Buford who was registered in the last census is 61-year-old Don Sammons who moved there with his family in 1980. Ten years later he purchased all the remaining properties in the town. As he now the town’s only official resident, he has no contest to his claim to become mayor.

Price: 900,000 dollars

On learning about Sammon’s sale of the town at auction, the subsequent purchasers travelled from Vietnam to make the purchase after which they flew immediately back to their native home.

The starting sale price was 100,000 dollars and the town finally sold for a total of 900,000 dollars. The Vietnamese businessmen were competing with several home-grown competitors.