The town traces its origins to the 1860s and the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Buford had as many as 2,000 residents before the railroad was rerouted.

Sammons, who moved to the Buford area about 30 years ago from Los Angeles to get away from the busy city life, bought the trading post on Jan. 31, 1992. He plans to retire from his unofficial title as "mayor" and write a book about his experiences in Buford, he said.

"I felt my time here has been very happy for me, and hopefully the new owner will be able to enjoy what I've enjoyed over the years — conversations with people, the uniqueness of the area and so on — and keep the history alive," Sammons said.

As workers boarded up the windows of the convenience store behind her, Rozetta Weston, a broker with a Cheyenne real estate auction company that represented the buyer, said the buyer was excited to own a "piece of the United States." But she declined to discuss the buyer's future plans for Buford.

Weston said the buyer and a companion arrived in Wyoming — their first trip to the United States — on Monday, touring Cheyenne and the University of Wyoming at Laramie before the auction.