In 1927, Henry Ford hatched a plan to break the British monopoly on the supply of rubber that he needed to make tires for his automobiles. He gained rights to 5,625 square miles (nearly 1.5 million hectares) of land along the Tapajós River in the Amazon basin and began constructing a model town and rubber plantation. Called Fordlândia, the town was patterned after a typical Midwestern American city, with a hospital, golf course and movie theater. Most of the buildings and equipment were fabricated in Michigan in the US and shipped to Brazil, including warehouses, workshops, and the famous 50 meter tall water tower, which still stands and is used today.
Ford had considerable trouble with the workers, who didn’t appreciate being forced to follow his strict, and unfamiliar, rules of behavior. The site for the plantation was poorly chosen, and the rubber trees were planted too close together. Soon a blight spread through the plantation, killing many trees. By 1936, Ford gave up and moved the operation 100 km downriver to Belterra, which was better situated for growing rubber trees. Fordlândia was abandoned without producing a single pound of rubber. No better luck was had at Belterra, and after WWII, Ford’s grandson, Henry Ford II, who was now operating the company, divested the Brazilian assets.
Fordlândia was left to rot in the Brazilian jungle. Over the years many of the buildings were vandalized and the equipment was removed. Recently, though, locals have moved in and the town has seen a resurgence. By 2017 the population had grown to around 3000, from 100 just twenty years before. Sadly, the town is still plagued by poverty and decay, but the residents have hopes for better days. For now, tourists come by river boat and motorcycle to see the remnants of a failed jungle utopia.
The Fordlândia Airport and Harbor as constructed in MSFS
Fordlândia Airport is a short, unimproved airstrip located about 5 km downstream from town. Although it is designated SBII in the sim, it currently caries the local identifier BR-0066, and I could find no recent record of an ICAO identifier. I have kept the SBII designation, but have made several changes to the airport. The airport is paved in the sim, but from aerial images it appears to be gravel with no amenities. So, I have changed the pavement to gravel, eliminated the fuel station, and added only a small storage building. There are five parking spaces adjacent to the runway and one small solar-powered light near the building. The runway ends are identified by metal barrels. There are no edge identifiers, but the runway is clearly delineated by its carve-out in the jungle. I cleared a few trees from the approaches, but at only 1800 feet (550 m), the runway is definitely a bush strip. There are no radio communications.
I also added some scenery to the town. The Fordlândia pier is missing in the sim, so I added it in with several river boats adjacent. I also reconstructed the famous Ford warehouse near the waterfront using existing scenery elements. And, importantly, I added the iconic 160-foot-tall Fordlândia water tower. Dominating the city, the water tower is the signature structure from the days of Henry Ford.
Lastly, I added a small float plane dock near the pier with one water parking space. There is a static de Havilland Beaver on the beach and a parking space next to the Beaver for an amphibious airplane.
Notes
To install the airport, unzip and place the folder titled "mulberrywing-airport-sbii-itaituba" in your community folder. All the scenery elements are included or currently exist in the sim, so no additional files are needed.
The parking spots in the town are fairly distant from the airstrip. You will need to zoom out on the World Map to see the town and click on those spots.
Numerous articles and documentaries can be found online recounting the history of Fordlândia. The definitive resource is the book Fordlândia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City, by Greg Grandin. This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and is an excellent and entertaining read.
Belterra was not financially viable for the Fords, due to the introduction of synthetic rubber. However, the plantation is still producing natural rubber to this day, under the operation of the Brazilian government. About 2000 people currently live in the city, with about 14,000 more in the surrounding villages and countryside.
The Fordlândia rubber plantation was located just north of the spot where Colonel Percy Fawcett disappeared just a few years earlier while searching for the lost city of Z.
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MulberryWing
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