1928: Two ships filled with supplies sailed up a tributary of the Amazon River. The boats docked at a newly constructed town that resembled an American suburb and looked entirely out of place in the rainforest.
The town was named after the man who had envisioned it, Henry Ford.
The famous automaker had dominated the car industry for over 20 years, and he wanted to expand his business empire to include making tires. Since Great Britain had secured rubber trees in other parts of the world, Ford sought his own plantation. He settled on a territory deep in the Amazon Rainforest.
To keep his American employees happy in that distant and remote jungle setting, though, meant building them an American-style town.
Fordlandia was created.
Construction commenced in 1926 but was slowed when workers suffered from jungle-related maladies like malaria and yellow fever.
The only access in or out of the town was via the riverways.
But when the town was completed, Fordlandia featured Midwestern-style row houses with green lawns, gardens, sidewalks, fire hydrants, and paved streets, none of which could be found anywhere else in the rainforest.
The town also boasted a hospital, a school, a movie theater, a dance hall, and a golf course.
At its peak population, Fordlandia housed 10,000 people.
Locals were hired to tap the rubber trees while the Americans were mostly managers.
Some Americans brought their families to live with them.
Meals consisted of American staples like burgers and canned goods. The local workers found the strange food unpalatable.
The town was segregated into two regions, one for the Americans and another for the Brazilians.
The Americans had indoor plumbing that piped in fresh water from the town’s water tower. The locals had to make do with well water.
The land was barely arable, and none of the Americans knew anything about farming. Few of them even knew how to tap rubber trees.
That was left up to the locals, who were paid high wages yet resented their poor treatment.
Town rules, which were laid down by Henry Ford, prohibited alcohol, smoking, and prostitution. So the Brazilian workers secretly rowed to ships docked upstream where they could partake of their vices.
1930: Violence broke out in the cafeteria because the locals hated the American food. They smashed up the town. The Ford managers escaped, and the Brazilian military quelled the riot.
Then came something worse: caterpillars.
Hundreds of thousands of the insects attacked the rubber trees and began chewing away. The plantation was doomed.
By 1934, Fordlandia had to be abandoned.
Another location was created downstream. But with the advent of synthetic rubber that site was abandoned, too.
Several of Fordlandia’s structures, like the water tower and factory, still exist to this day, although the jungle growth will eventually claim them.
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