Fordlandia: The City Ford Built, Then Sold for $250,000

Fordlandia was not beaten by the jungle. It was closed on a ledger: a 1927 concession, a manager who had never farmed rubber, a town run like Dearborn, and a 1945 sale to Brazil for $250,000. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:45 Why Ford wanted the Tapajós 03:10 A concession, then a city 06:20 The manager who had never farmed rubber 08:40 Belterra is not the ending 11:00 Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars Sources and further reading 1. The Henry Ford, Ford Rubber Plantations in Brazil https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/e... 2. Companhia Ford do Brasil, Fordlandia Estate Map, 1936 (The Henry Ford collections) https://www.thehenryford.org/collections/e... 3. ArchiveGrid / Benson Ford Research Center, Fordlandia rubber plantation photograph album, 1928–1930 https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid... 4. Greg Grandin, Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City Books and tools mentioned • Book: Fordlandia by Greg Grandin — add a SiteStripe link after Associates is live As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Some narration and visuals in this video were produced with AI tools. The research, thesis, and edit were reviewed by a human editor. Still credits • Ford Motor Company. Photographic Department. — Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ae... • European Union , Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery — Attribution https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am... • Kon. Ver. Koloniaal Instituut, foto A.V.R.O.S — CC BY 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aa... • Louis Claes — Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ca... • Bill Reid Collection — Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Co... • Mithila Madawa — CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Di... • shankar s. from Dubai, united arab emirates — CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ah... • J. A. Russell — Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ru... • Paul R. Burley — CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hu... • Paul R. Burley — CC BY-SA 4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Us... • Kerbla Edzerdla — CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ab... • Rawie, Henry — Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An... Some stills are in-studio AI illustrations (landscapes and machines), not photographs of people or events. #engineeringhistory #vanishedcompanies #industrialhistory #documentary #thelostmachine