The Wyoming Ghost Town That Technically Never Died Thanks to One Very Stubborn Caretaker
The Last Man Standing in America's Loneliest Town
Imagine being so committed to your hometown that you'd literally become the town itself. That's exactly what happened in Buford, Wyoming, where one man's stubborn loyalty created the most bizarre municipal survival story in American history.
In 1918, Buford was a thriving railroad stop with a population of 2,000. By 1980, it had exactly one resident. By 2012, that lone holdout had turned his five-decade vigil into a $900,000 payday that made international headlines.
When a Boom Town Goes Bust Overnight
Buford's story begins like countless other Western towns: the railroad arrived, businesses flourished, and families settled in for what they thought would be permanent prosperity. Located at 8,000 feet above sea level between Cheyenne and Laramie, the town served as a crucial water stop for steam locomotives crossing the Continental Divide.
But 1918 brought a perfect storm of disasters. The Spanish flu pandemic devastated the population, the railroad shifted its operations, and the local economy collapsed virtually overnight. Most residents packed up and left within months, leaving behind empty houses, abandoned businesses, and one very determined caretaker named Don Sammons.
Sammons had been hired to maintain the railroad facilities, and when his employers suggested he might want to relocate, he politely declined. His wife had died, his children had moved away, and frankly, he liked the solitude. What started as a temporary arrangement became a 25-year commitment to keeping Buford technically alive.
The Accidental Mayor of Population: One
Here's where the story gets truly strange. Because Sammons never officially abandoned his post, and because no one bothered to formally dissolve the town's municipal status, Buford remained an incorporated municipality with a population of one. This made Sammons simultaneously the mayor, the entire city council, the police force, and the only voter in local elections.
For decades, he maintained the post office, kept the general store nominally operational, and even continued to file municipal paperwork with the state of Wyoming. He was essentially running a government for himself, which sounds absurd until you realize he was also maintaining property values for an entire ghost town.
When Sammons finally retired in the 1970s, his son PhinDeli took over the family business of being Buford's sole resident. Unlike his father, PhinDeli saw the marketing potential of America's smallest town. He began selling souvenirs, hosting curious tourists, and gradually turning Buford into a legitimate tourist attraction.
The Auction That Broke the Internet
By 2012, PhinDeli was ready to retire, which created an unprecedented real estate situation: how do you sell an entire town? The answer, apparently, is eBay.
The auction listing was surreal: "Own your own town! Population 1. Includes 10 acres, general store, gas station, and three-bedroom house. Current population willing to relocate."
Bidding started at $100,000 but quickly escalated as international media picked up the story. The final sale price of $900,000 went to Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Nguyen, who announced plans to rename the town PhinDeli Town in honor of its last American resident.
The Strangest Municipal Success Story
What makes Buford's story truly remarkable isn't just the longevity of its one-man population, but the fact that this arrangement actually worked. For nearly a century, the town maintained its legal status, property values, and even a modest tourism industry, all because one stubborn railroad worker refused to admit defeat.
The Sammons family essentially proved that with enough persistence, you can keep a dead town alive through sheer force of will. They maintained municipal services for a population of one, filed taxes for a ghost town, and eventually sold their persistence for nearly a million dollars.
Why This Actually Happened
Buford's survival story highlights the bizarre intersection of American municipal law, Western stubbornness, and modern marketing. Most ghost towns simply fade away when their populations leave, but Buford's continuous habitation created a legal loophole that preserved its status as an incorporated municipality.
The town's eventual sale to an international buyer also reflects something uniquely American: the idea that with enough entrepreneurial spirit, even the most unlikely assets can become valuable. PhinDeli Sammons didn't just inherit a ghost town; he inherited a brand, and he marketed that brand brilliantly.
Today, Buford continues to operate under new ownership, proving that sometimes the most improbable survival stories are the ones that endure. One man's refusal to give up on his hometown became a multi-generational family business, a tourist attraction, and ultimately, a nearly million-dollar real estate transaction.
It's the kind of story that sounds too strange to be true, but that's exactly what makes it perfectly American: turning stubborn persistence into unexpected profit, one empty town at a time.