Henry Ford built a utopian city inside Brazil’s Amazon rainforest that’s now a ghost town — take a look around the abandoned city that was once ‘Fordlandia’

• Automaker Henry Ford, of Ford Motor Company, turned to the Brazilian rainforest in the 1920s to construct a rubber plantation that would serve as his own personal supply of the material.
• The town, dubbed Fordlandia, was more than an industrial operation – it was Ford’s attempt to establish a picturesque American society.
• Here’s how Fordlandia was founded before completely falling apart.

Deep inside Brazil’s Amazon rainforest sit the dilapidated remains of what looks like an industrial town. One of the first things you’ll see upon entering is a water tower with a faded “Ford” logo.

That’s because almost a century ago, the founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford, turned that space of land into not only a business operation but a social experiment of sorts.

Here’s how Fordlandia, Ford’s utopian city and industrial town, was founded – and how it completely fell apart.

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If you’ve never heard of Fordlandia before, no worries — Google has. The search engine recognizes it easily, tucked away in the Brazilian city of Aveiro.

Source: Google Maps

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It’s technically still there —you can find the discarded remnants of it on the banks of the Tapajos River in Northern Brazil.

Source: BBC

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It may not look like it nowadays, but decades before, the colony was Ford’s bright and shiny idea for a new kind of industrial operation. And at first, it seemed promising.

Source: NPR

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Back in the early 1920s, business was booming for Ford in the US. Ford Motor Company was selling thousands of cars and using massive amounts of rubber for its tires.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Brazil was initially the world’s only source of rubber, supplying industrialized Britain and the US with the material.

Source: The Culture Trip

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But that changed when a British explorer named Henry Wickham smuggled thousands of rubber seeds out of the South American country to his homeland.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Britain planted the seeds in its Southeast Asian colonies, where the rubber crops, free from the insects that had infected them back in Brazil, thrived.

Source: The Culture Trip

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All of a sudden, Britain had replaced Brazil as the titan in the rubber trade, which worried Ford.

Source: The Culture Trip

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So for the sake of efficiency, Ford turned to the Amazon Rainforest to construct a rubber plantation that would serve as his own personal supply of the material.

Source: Gizmodo

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He purchased millions of acres from an obliging Brazilian government, which was still licking its wounds from being overturned as the rubber trade monopoly.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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And in 1928, he sent his delegates with supplies to the South American country to oversee operations of the plantation.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Fordlandia was then officially founded, and a sawmill and water tower were erected. The latter bore the familiar mark of the Ford company logo.

Source: The Henry Ford

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Forest was cleared to make way for the rubber crops.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Ford’s goal was to manufacture 38,000 tons of latex from his rubber farmstead.

Source: Atlas Obscura, 99 Percent Invisible

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He would then ship the product back up to his factories in Detroit, Michigan.

Source: The Culture Trip

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However, land was cleared not just for the rubber plantation, but for a town.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Fordlandia was as much a city as it was a business operation.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Workers and their families lived in employee housing on site.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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The homes resembled the Midwestern abodes back in the US that Ford was accustomed to.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Native Brazilians were also among those hired in Fordlandia to work in the factories.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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They lived in the housing complex as well.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Ford paid his Fordlandia workers well and incorporated labor practices, like time clocks and eight-hour work days, into the settlement’s structure.

Source: The Henry Ford, 99 Percent Invisible

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He also gave them access to amenities and resources while employed in the settlement, like a swimming pool …

Source: The Henry Ford

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… a golf course …

Source: The Henry Ford

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… and a school.

Source: The Henry Ford

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The school was the first time many indigenous people had access to education.

Source: 99 Percent Invisible

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Transportation systems were implemented to get residents around the town.

Source: BBC

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And children could participate in Boy Scouts.

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A Fordlandia cemetery was built and still exists to this day …

Source: The Culture Trip

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… as was a modern hospital.

Source: The Henry Ford

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Fordlandia employees received free medical care at the hospital, too.

Source: 99 Percent Invisible

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The idea was to not only produce a stockpile of rubber for manufacturing Ford’s vehicles, but also to cultivate Ford’s idea of the perfect American society based on his own personal morals and ideology.

Source: The Culture Trip

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But, as NPR writes, despite the seemingly idyllic set-up, “The first failure of Fordlandia was social.”

Source: 99 Percent Invisible, NPR

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Workers were expected to abiding by a strict set of rules and labor practices.

Source: NPR

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Fordlandia residents were fed a meatless diet, modeled after Ford’s own vegetarian habits, and were served things like brown rice, whole wheat bread, and oatmeal.

Source: NPR

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They were pushed to attend poetry readings and English-language-only singing sessions, and alcohol and prostitution were prohibited.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Many workers railed against those restrictions, with some taking to a nearby island to establish a bar and a brothel to let loose after a long day’s work. They called it “The Island of Innocence.”

Source: 99 Percent Invisible, The Henry Ford

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Ford also built a dance hall in hopes that his Brazilian workers would take to square dancing as much as he had.

Source: Atlas Obscura, 99 Percent Invisible

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In fact, Ford hoped that Brazilians working in the settlement would adhere to every one of the societal expectations that he set.

Source: 99 Percent Invisible

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But ultimately, workers clashed culturally with Ford’s American vision of idealism.

Source: 99 Percent Invisible

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The tipping point came in 1930 when the dining hall stopped its wait service and shifted to a self-serve cafeteria-style eating experience.

Source: NPR, 99 Percent Invisible

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Workers rioted and destroyed much of Fordlandia, including the time clocks, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

Source: NPR, 99 Percent Invisible

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Workers’ ire eventually settled down and order was restored, but the cultural discord was just one of many problems that plagued Fordlandia.

Source: 99 Percent Invisible

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Even though they were planted in their species’ native soil (rubber trees are indigenous to Brazil), the plants didn’t thrive.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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When Ford set out on his Brazilian endeavor, he had refused to consult a botanist when planting the foundation of the rubber trees.

Source: Atlas Obscura, 99 Percent Invisible

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So when he unadvisedly had the first round of rubber trees planted during the hot and dry season, the plants deteriorated.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Ford had also made the mistake of having the trees planted in tight rows away from steady water flow, giving fungi and pests plenty of room to wreak havoc on the young buds.

Source: NPR

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As a result, leaf blight set in and destroyed the saplings. The rubber trees produced barely any output, with Fordlandia only touting 750 tons of latex — none of which ever made it into a Ford car.

Source: NPR, Atlas Obscura

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Despite the tremendous failure over Fordlandia’s early years, Ford persisted and funneled more and more money into the project, even moving the settlement downstream for a fresh patch of soil in 1933. He renamed the new section Belterra, but that, too, failed.

Source: Atlas Obscura, The Henry Ford

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As for Ford’s emissaries from Detroit, they also didn’t have it easy. They weren’t accustomed to the hot, humid climate, and their families — particularly their wives — didn’t have much to do.

Source: NPR

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The final straw came with the advent of synthetic rubber years later, rendering the whole purpose of Fordlandia useless.

Source: Gizmodo

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So in 1945, Ford shuttered his once-glistening prospective project and sold the land back to the Brazilian government for $250,000.

Source: Atlas Obscura

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Overall, the failure amounted to a staggering $20 million loss (or $200 million in today’s dollars.)

Source: Atlas Obscura

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And throughout the entire venture, Ford never once set foot in Fordlandia: He managed operations from his home in Michigan.

Source: NPR, History

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Now, 80 years later, a deteriorated factory building stands as a reminder of Fordlandia’s failure.

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The water tower still boasts a faded Ford logo.

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But despite the abandoned structures …

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… Fordlandia is currently home to some 3,000 Brazilians.

Source: The Culture Trip

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Most work in the cattle trade or own local businesses.

Source: The Culture Trip

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The once-modern hospital on site has completely crumbled.

Source: Wikimedia

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Bats are reportedly the former infirmary’s only occupants.

Source: BBC

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Curious visitors can take a trip to see the town and stay in a hotel close to the former settlement.

Source: The Culture Trip

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If it weren’t for the decomposing structures, Fordlandia reportedly would seem like any other rural town in Brazil.

Source: Culture Trip