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Buford is an
The town was put up for auction on April 5, 2012, with the highest bid of $900,000 having been made by two then-unidentified Vietnamese men. Later, it was revealed that one of them was Phạm Đình Nguyên. The new owners sold "PhinDeli" brand coffee, imported from Vietnam, in the convenience store. In 2013, the new Vietnamese owner, re-branded the site as "PhinDeli Town Buford". Nguyen never lived in the town and only visited it occasionally. Sammons managed the store for months and then Albany County native Jason Hirsh took over management while his son and nephew maintained the property and lived on site. In September 2017, Hirsh resigned and the store was boarded up.
Buford Wyoming: Dan Sammons, Author Buford One
— official site of Buford owner in 1990s and 2000s, including information about a book Sammons wrote about Buford
2010 video interview
from CNN
NPR profile 2017
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Albany County, Wyoming Unincorporated communities in Wyoming
unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to:
* Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality
* Unincorporated entity, a type of organization
* Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...
ghost town
Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to:
* Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned
Film and television
* ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser
* ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by All ...
in Albany County, Wyoming, United States. It is located between Laramie and Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
on Interstate 80. Its last resident, who had been the lone resident for nearly two decades, left in 2012.
Location
Buford is located in the Laramie Mountains, between the towns of Laramie andCheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enr ...
. The town is along the eastern approach to Sherman Hill Summit, the highest point along all of the transcontinental Interstate 80, Lincoln Highway
The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...
and the Overland Route. Buford is also an access to reach the Ames Monument
The Ames Monument is a large pyramid in Albany County, Wyoming, designed by Henry Hobson Richardson and dedicated to brothers Oakes Ames and Oliver Ames, Jr., Union Pacific Railroad financiers. It marked the highest point on the first transcontin ...
, which marks the highest point along the original routing of the First transcontinental railroad.
History
The original town was founded in 1866. A ''Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' article from 2012 stated that the locale began as a military outpost during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
, but shrank when the fort moved to Laramie. The town once boasted a population of 2,000.
The Buford post office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...
was established in August 1900, originally attributed as being in Laramie County
Laramie County is a county located at the southeast corner of the state of Wyoming. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 100,512 or 17.4% of the state's total 2020 population, making it the most populous county in Wyoming, b ...
but attributed to Albany County beginning in 1901. The post office suspended service on February 1, 1999, and the post office itself was discontinued on July 24, 2004, with mail service given to the post office at Cheyenne. There was a school operating in Buford from 1905 to 1962.
The railroad sold the Buford site to a private buyer in 1970.
Don Sammons, with Sammons' wife and son, moved to Buford from California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
in 1980. Archived as In 1992, he bought the parcel, of around , that comprises Buford, including the Buford Trading Post and its gas station. Sammons was the officer-in-charge of the post office beginning in 1993, and postmaster from April 1994 until the post office closed. Around 1995, Sammons' wife died, and around 2008, his son moved away. When Sammons decided to move to be closer to his adult son, he auctioned off the site in April 2012.
The town was put up for auction on April 5, 2012, with the highest bid of $900,000 having been made by two then-unidentified Vietnamese men. Later, it was revealed that one of them was Phạm Đình Nguyên. The new owners sold "PhinDeli" brand coffee, imported from Vietnam, in the convenience store. In 2013, the new Vietnamese owner, re-branded the site as "PhinDeli Town Buford". Nguyen never lived in the town and only visited it occasionally. Sammons managed the store for months and then Albany County native Jason Hirsh took over management while his son and nephew maintained the property and lived on site. In September 2017, Hirsh resigned and the store was boarded up.
See also
*Fort Sanders (Wyoming)
Fort Sanders was a wooden fort constructed in 1866 on the Laramie Plains in southern Wyoming, near the city of Laramie. Originally named Fort John Buford, it was renamed Fort Sanders after General William P. Sanders, who died at the Siege of K ...
— sometimes associated with Buford
*Monowi, Nebraska
Monowi ( ) is an incorporated village in Boyd County, Nebraska, United States. It garnered national and international recognition after the 2010 United States census counted only one resident of the village, Elsie Eiler. Though the 2020 cen ...
– The only incorporated village with only 1 person
References
External links
Buford Wyoming: Dan Sammons, Author Buford One
— official site of Buford owner in 1990s and 2000s, including information about a book Sammons wrote about Buford
2010 video interview
from CNN
NPR profile 2017
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Albany County, Wyoming Unincorporated communities in Wyoming