Joining East and West, Don Sammons, a Vietnam veteran who settled in and purchased the tiny town of Buford, Wyoming in 1992, has sold the town to a Vietnamese entrepreneur named Nguyen Dinh Pham.
The town of Buford, which traces its roots to the construction of the country’s first transcontinental railroad some 150 years ago, has been promoted as the smallest town in America. It is located along Interstate 80 about a hundred miles northwest of Denver.
Mr. Nguyen heard about Mr. Sammons’ online auction for the town and, with the support of investors, won the auction for $900,000. He is using the town to provide Vietnamese coffee to customers in the region, beginning with truck drivers and tourists. Don and Pham now cooperate to market and sell Vietnamese coffee which is still unknown to many Americans. Don has said that the cooperative effort has been rewarding, stating,
"As an American and a Vietnam War vet, it has a deeper meaning to me to hand this town over to Pham to live out his own version of the American dream."
Mr. Sammons plans to visit Vietnam to learn about Vietnamese coffee-making.