Fordlandia

In 1928 the Ford Motor Company acquired a large concession on the Tapajos to grow its own rubber and escape the British and Dutch plantation cartel, and built a town for it: clapboard houses on American plans, a water tower, a hospital with Detroit equipment, fire hydrants, a golf course and a dance hall, run on Ford's rules of no alcohol, American food and shift work regulated by whistle. The plantation failed. Hevea planted densely in its native range is destroyed by South American leaf blight, which the managers did not understand, and the labour conditions produced a riot in 1930. Ford sold the concession back to Brazil in 1945 at a heavy loss, having never shipped rubber to Michigan. Around three thousand people were living there as of 2017.

History

In 1927 the Ford Motor Company set out to grow its own rubber in Brazil, and after talks with the governor of Pará, Dionísio Bentes, it received a concession of about 10,000 square kilometres in exchange for 9% of the profits, where in 1928 it founded a planned town for 10,000 people, with American-style houses, a hospital, a school, a pool, a golf course and a cinema, and strict rules against alcohol and tobacco. The hilly, infertile land, rubber trees planted too close together and managers without tropical experience left the plantation prey to blight and pests, the unfamiliar food and housing bred discontent among the workers, and the town was abandoned in 1934 (Wikipedia, Fordlândia).

What to look for

• American clapboard houses - Michigan plans built on the Tapajos.
• The water tower and hospital - the industrial infrastructure still standing.
• A plantation beaten by blight - dense hevea failing in its own native range.
• A living village - several hundred residents among the ruins.

When to go

July to December. A day on site, with a long boat journey either side.

Before you go

There is no road; the boat from Santarem takes most of a day each way and schedules are sparse. Buildings are decayed and mostly not enterable. There is no visitor infrastructure and few facilities. This is a place for the story, not for comfort.

Nearby

Aveiro is downstream; Santarem is the practical base.