Fordlândia

Pará · Brazil · Abandoned site

Henry Ford's dead dream city rots in the Amazon – rusty operating tables still stand among the vines in the abandoned hospital's wards.

Fordlândia was founded in 1928 as Henry Ford's megalomaniac attempt to build an American Detroit in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, with rubber plantations to supply Ford's tyres. Leaf blight killed the rubber trees, the workers rioted against hamburgers and time clocks, and in 1945 the whole enterprise was sold for a pittance. What remains on the Tapajós river is a ghost town: the water tower, the factory halls and the once state-of-the-art hospital where rusty operating tables and X-ray equipment can still be glimpsed among vines and shattered glass. Visitors describe the atmosphere as eerie and unreal – the revenant of an entire civilisation, slowly swallowed by the jungle.

FAQ

Where is Fordlândia located?

Fordlândia is in Pará, Brazil.

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Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Amit Evron - User: (WT-shared) Amitevron at wts wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons