Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Nguyen flew to the U.S. for the first time, drove to a tiny, frigid trading outpost and bought his own piece of the American dream: Buford, Wyo. — population 1.
Nguyen’s name was not released last week when he won the auction for Buford — billed as the nation’s smallest town — but he has since drawn attention in Vietnamese media and on social networks. Many are lauding him for showing the world that Vietnam has moved far beyond war and poverty.
Nguyen, who bid $900,000 for Buford, runs a trade and distribution company in Ho Chi Minh City. He said that although he is not exactly sure what he will do with the town just off Interstate 80, he expects to use it to sell items made in Vietnam.
“Frankly, I just see Buford as part of the United States: A large and potential market for Vietnamese goods,” Nguyen told state-controlled media.
Nguyen, 38, has been quoted widely by local media since the April 5 sale, but he did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment from The Associated Press or return phone messages left with his company, International Distribution Services. An employee confirmed that Nguyen bought the town.
His purchase impressed many Vietnamese. Businessman Tran Thanh Tung said Friday in Hanoi that he was “surprised, but also proud.”
It’s “something that one could not imagine few years ago,” he said.
Buford consists of a gas station and convenience store, a 1905 schoolhouse, a cabin, a garage and a three-bedroom house on 10 acres between Cheyenne and Laramie.
The town was formed as the Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s. Up to 2,000 people lived there before the railroad was rerouted.
The remote property is 8,000 feet above sea level, and Nguyen said that when he visited this month on his first trip to the U.S. that, “waves of skin-cutting cold blew into my face.”
“However, I was undeterred because of the desire to own this town,” he said.
