On the windswept plains of southern Wyoming, a tiny town changes hands

Vietnamese businessman Nguyen Dinh Pham, left, and Sammons, right, unveil the town’s reopened convenience store, where Pham hopes to launch a coffee empire. He sells three different blends, shipped straight from Vietnam, to truckers and cross-country travelers.  (Alan Rogers / Associated Press)

Vietnamese businessman Pham visits with nearby residents. He was in Ho Chi Minh City when he saw a news story about an American town up for auction: “I thought, ‘Wow, this is amazing. Where is Wyoming?’”  (Alan Rogers / Associated Press)

Sammons sold Pham the town for $900,000. “If you would have told me a few months ago I’d be selling this place to a Vietnamese citizen, I would not have believed you,” he says. After the sale, he became a partner in Pham’s coffee enterprise.  (Alan Rogers / Associated Press)

Caretaker Fred Patzer, 55, changes the oil on a work truck in Buford, where he is the lone resident.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

In its heyday, the town had 2,000 residents. Famous visitors included Presidents Grant and Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Butch Cassidy supposedly robbed a train there.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Caretaker Fred Patzer is one of three Wyoming employees of Pham’s company. With sweeping views of the Rocky Mountains, Buford sits at an elevation of 8,000 feet, billing itself as the highest point on Interstate 80 between San Francisco and New York.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)