| What makes it historical? |
Buford was founded in 1866 as a fort to protect workers on the Transcontinental Railroad and later became a rest stop! It was named after Charles Buford, a Union Army officer who fought at the battles of Second Manassas, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg! With an elevation of 8,000 feet above sea level, Buford was the highest settlement along the transcontinental railroad and is today the highest settlement along I-80!
At its height, Buford had a population of 2,000 residents, bolstered by the railroad. But then the fort moved west down the road to Laramie, and the town of Buford fell into decline until only the family of Don Sammons remained. When his wife died and son moved away, Mr. Sammons was left as the sole resident of the once thriving town.
In 2012, after serving as de facto mayor of Buford for over two decades, Mr. Sammons sold the town at auction, and a businessman from Vietnam, named Pham Dinh Nguyen, bought the town for $900,000, renamed it PhinDeli Town Buford, and now uses the old trading post as an outlet to sell Vietnamese coffee to truckers and roadtrippers! |
