Along the banks of the Tapajós River in the Brazilian state of Pará, the remnants of a 1920s industrial city built by the American industrialist Henry Ford still stand. This city, called Fordlândia, was constructed as part of Ford’s effort to establish a rubber plantation in the Amazon, reducing reliance on Asian rubber producers. The site includes wooden houses, a rusted water tower, and the remains of a hospital built in 1928. Ford acquired over 10,000 km² of land in the region and had botanists identify the best location as early as 1923. By 1928, the city was fully developed with a school, a cinema, swimming pools, a golf course, and streets lined with new Ford cars. A sawmill, power plant, and hundreds of homes were built, including American-style mansions for managers and simpler housing for workers. Henry Ford never visited Brazil and had no firsthand knowledge of the local environment, despite overseeing the city’s construction from Detroit. The city was designed to reflect American standards, with strict rules imposed on Brazilian workers, including working hours modeled after those in Detroit factories and standardized meals. Although workers received double the usual salary, they were required to adopt an American lifestyle, including self-service cafeterias and numbered badges, which were deducted from their first paycheck. Alcohol was banned in Fordlândia, prompting the development of a nearby town where drinking was permitted. Tensions quickly emerged due to the cultural differences between American management and Brazilian workers. In 1930, an attempt to reorganize the cafeteria led to unrest, requiring Brazilian troops to restore order. In 1933, workers destroyed equipment, generators, and their own housing, while managers fled by boat. These conflicts were partly due to the imposition of an American way of life on the local population. Additionally, a microscopic fungus, Microcyclus ulei, which causes South American leaf disease, devastated millions of rubber trees. The trees had been planted in tight rows, similar to corn in Iowa, which made them more vulnerable to disease. This method was not typical, as rubber trees naturally grow scattered and isolated. Ford tried to reduce the damage by relocating part of the rubber cultivation to a nearby area called Belterra, using more resistant grafts imported from Asia. However, the damage was already severe, and production never reached the ambitious targets Ford had set. Despite a decade of efforts, the highest latex production was only 750 tons, far below the amount needed to compete with Asian plantations. The city's failure was further compounded by the development of synthetic rubber during World War II, which made the plantation obsolete. After the war, Fordlândia was abandoned, and Henry Ford II left it to the Brazilian government. Today, the ruins of Fordlândia remain, with industrial buildings, workers’ houses, a school, and a hospital still visible. A few families continue to live in the area, far from the nearest city. The fungus that destroyed the rubber trees still has no effective treatment, and Brazil continues to import most of the rubber it uses. Fordlândia stands as a testament to an ambitious but ultimately failed experiment in industrial expansion and cultural imposition.