History Henry Ford's Abandoned Factory in the Amazon

built in 1934, abandoned in 1945, I thought this was supper cool..

 

I would like to see more of that. Very cool.

 

Thanks for posting, that was neat !

 

Tours ?

 

I've heard of the rubber plant/city Ford built, but that's the first I've seen of it. I'd sure like to see more!

 

There is a really good book about it called...Fordlandia.

 

Monty Python's Flying Circus has the best rates... a division of Kalitta Air, I heard. HeeHee. Gary

 

I would believe the invention of synthetic rubber would have also had a reason of this factory's demise?


Ago

 

Also the end of the war in Europe. I didn't really follow the "Henry Ford dream to build a perfect America that didn't work".

 

That was very cool. I love seeing things like that.

 

First I have heard of this. Veery interesting..

 

Micheal Palin is the presenter. I love his programs. He tours the whole world. He should visit Detroit!

 

There was a write up about the plant in our Canadian Old Autos newspaper. Ford had a hard time keeping managers there.Here is a link to the paper, not the story.
http://www.oldautos.ca/

 

Little google and I found that there was a BUNCH of reasons why.

38,000 tons projected and only 750 tons produced was a big problem. Cultural differences with the workforce was another big one. So much so the workforce rioted against management.

 

Buoyed by the success of the T and the following A, Henry dreamt and built a vertically integrated supply chain from raw materials to distribution.
In order to achieve it, he exported what he thought would provide the best solution to securing a reliable supply source - American style housing, hospital, schools and everything that he considered necessary for a sound community. From his POV, it just made sense.
It seems that the target people weren't ready for that kind of lifestyle, or maybe the work regime required was more than the workers were willing to adopt.
The closing down date of 1945 seems coincidentally close to the end of WW2 (plus Henry was less involved in the running of FMC) and the business became more focussed on its core activity.
Either way, it was a very interesting video and I'm glad to have seen it.
Cheers.

 

there's other abandoned Ford assembly plants in Brazil as well... probably not as big, though. i "toured" one (as in "check it out but don't get caught").

interesting to find that they produced some model A models well past the end of '31... lots of cool steel left laying around; too bad any i found was attacked by the rust monster.

for what it's worth; brazil is an awesome country to tour. best to go while single

 

A good example of a long chance that most great men are willing to take. Some pay off and some don't.

 

If you get a chance try to watch Henry Ford - by PBS An American Experience. It talks about Fordlandia in the beginning of the show plus the rest of Henry's life. Its really quite interesting. He had some political views that wouldn't make it in todays world but an interesting man none the less.

 

the PBS Henry Ford thing was pretty good... saw it on youtube (i think) while trying to pass the day at work, not that long ago.