Summary: A court in the northern Brazilian state of Pará has ruled that federal and local authorities must restore and preserve Fordlandia, the ghost town Ford Motor Company carved out of the Amazon rainforest in 1927. Ford built the settlement to secure a domestic supply of natural rubber for tyres and challenge the British monopoly on the material, designing it to resemble an American suburb, complete with a hospital, running water, electricity, and a cinema. Disease ravaged the rubber plantations, the project collapsed, and the Brazilian government acquired the site in 1945.
Fordlandia was once the third-largest settlement in the Amazon, AP reports. Brazil’s federal prosecutors began the legal fight to preserve it in 2015, suing the national heritage agency and the local municipality of Aveiro for neglect.
The court found the site carries historical, cultural, and architectural significance protected under the Brazilian Constitution, even though it holds no formal heritage listing. Authorities must now develop a recovery plan, with financial penalties for noncompliance. Getting there remains an adventure: fly to a nearby city, board a boat down the Amazon, find the Tapajós tributary, and ride a few more hours upriver.
Brands mentioned: Ford
Sources:
• Apnews: Brazilian court orders restoration of Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s Amazon ghost town
• Roadandtrack: A Brazilian Court Just Ordered the Nation to Restore Fordlandia, Henry Ford’s Amazon Pipe Dream
• Independent: Abandoned city ‘Fordlandia’ set to be restored decades after its downfall
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