Buford, Wyoming, 'smallest town in US', is auctioned

It includes a school house, a petrol station, a three-bedroom home with a cabin and a general store.

Don Sammons, Buford's ex-owner and only resident, auctioned it at a starting price of $100,000. He is quitting his unofficial role as "mayor" to move on.

Mr Sammons, 60, has lived in the town since 1980. When his son moved away several years ago, Mr Sammons became Buford's only resident.

The second oldest town in Wyoming, Buford is on Interstate 80, the main cross-country road from New York to San Francisco.

The unincorporated community sits between Laramie and Cheyenne, the Wyoming state capital, at an altitude of 8,000ft (2,438m). It comes with its own zip code and US postal boxes.

It also has a mobile-phone tower and about 10 acres (four hectares) of land, much of which is fenced, the auction house said.

The establishment of Buford dates back to the construction of the transcontinental railroad and it at one time had a population of about 2,000.