$900k Could Have Bought You an Empty Town in Which to Host Your Very Own Hunger Games
The nation's least populous town sold at auction for $900,000 today. Everyone who lived in the town is moving to Windsor, Colorado. (It was just one guy. He lived there alone.)
Buford, Wyoming sits on about 10 acres of land offering distant views of the Rockies. It has own zipcode. It also has: a gas station, a convenience store, a schoolhouse from 1905, a cabin, a garage, and one three-bedroom home.
Don Sammons, the town's only resident and "unofficial mayor" (as in: "More coffee, Mr. Mayor?" asked Don. "Yes, please, and call me Don," said Don.) watched from the sidelines as bidding began at noon today. He moved to the town with his family in 1980 and is leaving now to be closer to his son.
Not much is known about the town's new owners, apart from the fact they are both Vietnamese gentlemen, on their first trip to the United States, who learned about the sale from a quirky online news article not unlike the one you are reading right now.
Nearby town-dweller and "weather beaten cowboy hat"-wearer Gary Crawford, who lives about 4.5 miles away from the site, was optimistic about Buford's new blood, saying
"I think we may have very nice, new neighbors."
Whoa. Was that a jab at "Mayor" Sammons?
Now we know why he moved away.
[Image via Getty]