Henry Ford built an American town in Amazon rainforest; sold it for $250,000
In 1927, Henry Ford established 'Fordlandia' in the Amazon rainforest to secure an independent rubber supply for his automotive empire. The project ultimately failed due to poor planning and agricultural mismanagement, leading to the town's abandonment.
Why it matters
This historical case study serves as a cautionary tale regarding corporate overreach and the complexities of global supply chain management.
Imagine a Midwestern town with a swimming pool, a golf course and a movie theatre located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, several hundred kilometres upriver from anything resembling a city. While it might sound like something from a set of a movie, it's not. In 1927, Henry Ford, the legend who put America on wheels began to look for land in Brazil to build his own version of small-town Michigan in the depths of the jungle. He finally found it in 1928 and named it Fordlandia. While the town had everything one would need, what it never had, across the seventeen years of trying, was enough rubber to be worth it, as per a report by Science Blog.Why Ford wanted his own rubberRubber was the choke point of the car business.
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