Lobato Conceicao sits on the front porch of her home in Fordlandia, a former factory town created by Ford Motor Company on the banks of the Tapajós River, September 6, 2005. Conceicao, who worked as a nanny for Ford executives, is one of the few residents who remember the Americans. Deep in the Amazon forest, 12 hours by boat from the regional capital of Santarem in the Brazilian state of Pará, the rubber plant
America Lobato Conceicao sits on the front porch of her home in Fordlandia, a former factory town created by the Ford Motor Company on the banks of the Tapajós River, September 6, 2005. Conceicao, who worked as nanny for Ford executives, is one of the few residents who remember the Americans. Deep in the Amazon forest, 12 hours by boat from the regional capital of Santarem in Brazil's Pará state, the rubber plantation and processing factory is now abandoned to the rain-forest, an aging memorial to American ideals and to the Brazilian reality. It almost seems like time has stopped in Fordlandia, or better yet, time has passed it by. In typical american style, it was organized and efficient, an idea admired by many Brazilians, and perhaps more so by residents of the untamed Amazon. But It is an idea hard to implement in the wilds of the amazon. Some might also say that it is also a typical American style the way Ford came here and tried to implement something with little knowledge of the local customs or terrain. From 1928 to 1945, Ford came tried to take control of his rubber supply, one of the most important products of the rainforest. After only 17 years the company admitted defeat and retreated from the forest.