Fordlândia
is the name given of a district and its adjacent area in the city of
Aveiro, in the Brazilian state of Pará. It is located on the east banks
of the Tapajós river roughly 300 km south of the city of Santarém.
It
was originally established by American industrialist Henry Ford in the
Amazon Rainforest in 1928 as a prefabricated industrial town intended to
be inhabited by 10 thousand people.
To enable Ford to secure a
source of cultivated rubber for the automobile manufacturing operations
of the Ford Motor Company in the United States.
Ford
had negotiated a deal with the Brazilian government granting him a
concession of 3,900 sq miles of land on the banks of the Rio Tapajós
near the city of Santarém, Brazil, in exchange for a 9% share in the
profits generated.
Ford’s project was ultimately a total failure and the city was abandoned in 1934.
The town was mostly deserted, with only 90 residents still living in
the city until the late 2000's when it saw an increase of population,
being home to around 2,000 people as of 2015.
sourceIn
the 1920s, the Ford Company sought to elude British monopoly over the
supply of rubber, mainly used for producing tires and other car parts.
Henry
Ford looked for alternatives and a permanent place to establish a
colony to produce rubber. Initially, Central America was considered.
However,
information about the rubber trees in the Amazon was uncovered and
this, along with other factors, caused a change of plans.
Negotiations
between the Brazilian government started when the then-governor of the
State of Pará, Dionísio Bentes, traveled to the United States to meet
Henry Ford. An agreement was signed and the American industrialist
received an area of about 2.5 million acres called “Boa Vista”.
The agreement exempted Ford from taxes to the exportation of goods produced in Brazil in exchange for 9% of the profits.
Work
on the area began in 1926 by the company under the name Companhia Ford
Industrial do Brasil and was immediately hindered by poor logistics and
diseases that affected the workers who succumbed to yellow fever and
malaria.
No roads were available in the area thus the area was only accessible by the Tapajós river.
The
site was developed as a pre-planned community with different areas of
the city being designated to the Brazilian workers and the American
managers, who lived in the so called American Village.
Typical
american houses were built, along with a hospital, school, library and
hotel. The town also had a swimming pool, a playground and even a golf
course. In
1928, Ford Company sent two merchant ships – Lake Ormoc and Lake Farge –
loaded with all the equipment the town could possibly require, from
door knobs to the town’s Water tower. The town was then founded under
the name Fordlândia.
Seeking workers, several offices were opened in
the cities of Belém and Manaus, and with the promise of good wages
people of the nearby states answered.
In lower temperatures the
latex is concentrated in the lower areas of the tree, as the temperature
rises during the day the latex spreads throughout the tree, making the
tapping less effective.
Due to this, the typical journey of a rubber tapper began early in the morning, at around 5 am, ending at noon.
The
plantation was divided into areas and each worker was assigned to a
different area to prevent workers from tapping the same trees
successively.
The
town had a strict set of rules imposed by the managers. Alcohol, women,
tobacco and even football were forbidden within the town, including
inside the workers’ own homes.
Inspectors would go from house to house to check how organised the houses were and to enforce these rules.
The inhabitants circumvented these prohibitions by paddling out to
merchant riverboats moored beyond town jurisdiction,often hiding
contraband goods inside fruits like watermelons.
A small settlement was established 5 miles upstream on the “Island of Innocence” with bars, nightclubs and brothels.
The land was hilly, rocky and infertile.
None of Ford’s managers had the requisite knowledge of tropical agriculture.
In the wild, the rubber trees grow apart from each other as a
protection mechanism against plagues and diseases, often growing close
to bigger trees of other species for added support.
In Fordlândia, however, the trees were closely together in
plantations, easy prey for tree blight, sauva ants, lace bugs, red
spiders, and leaf caterpillars.
The workers on the plantations were given unfamiliar food, such as
hamburgers and canned food, and forced to live in American-style
housing.
Most disliked the way they were treated, being required to wear ID
badges, and work through the middle of the day under the tropical sun –
and would often refuse to work.
In 1930, the native workers grew tired of the American food and
revolted in the town’s cafeteria. This became known as the Breaking
Pans.
The rebels proceeded to cut the telegraph wires and chased away the
managers and even the town’s cook into the jungle for a few days until
the Brazilian Army arrived and the revolt ended. Agreements were then
made on the type of food the workers would be served.
The government of Brazil was suspicious of any foreign investments,
particularly in the northern Amazonian region, and offered little help.
It wasn’t long before the numerous problems began to take a toll on the
project and the decision was made to relocate.
Fordlândia was ultimately abandoned by the Ford Company in 1934, with
the project being relocated downstream to Belterra, 28 miles south of
the city of Santarém.
Where better conditions to grow rubber existed, but by 1945 synthetic
rubber had been developed, reducing world demand for natural rubber.
Ford’s investment opportunity dried up overnight without producing
any rubber for Ford’s tires, and the second town was also abandoned.
In 1945, Henry Ford’s grandson Henry Ford II sold the area comprising
both towns back to the Brazilian government for a loss of over US$20
million ($208 million 2013 dollars).
In spite of the huge investment and numerous invitations, Henry Ford never visited either of his ill-fated towns. Water tower and other building in Fordlandia, Brazil.
Between the 1950s and late 1970s, after being given back the rights
to the lands, the Brazilian government, through its Ministry of
Agriculture, installed several facilities in the area.
The houses that once belonged to Ford’s rubber tappers were then
given to the families of the Ministry’s employees, whose some
descendants still occupy to this day.
The town remained inhabited by roughly 90 people until the latter half of the 2000s.'
No basic services were offered in the area, with medical help only coming by boat in long intervals.
That changed when people looking for places to live decided to go
back into the town, often claiming houses. The town, now a district of
Aveiro, is home to nearly three thousand people as of 2015 and seeks
emancipation.
It doesn’t look too bad, does it? Since you Barn Finds readers liked the 1957 Country Sedan we recently featured, this 1958 was a shoo-in. And this one even runs! It’s located in Irvington, Alabama and is up for sale here on eBay. The opening bid is just under $2,000, but there is a reserve. I wonder if it will sell; the 1957 didn’t sell at $4, 750.
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Not
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