Ford Motor Company. Photographic Dept.

The Ford Motor Company rubber plantations at Fordlandia and Belterra had their genesis in Henry Ford's concern that a production cap set by British colonial producers of natural rubber in 1922 would lead to regularly increasing costs. Ford, considering investment offers from Brazil, sent Dr. Carl La Rue to the Amazon to investigate sites for a rubber plantation. La Rue recommended the Tapajos River valley. Eventually, a contingent of men led by Ford official W.L. Reeves Blakely selected a 2,906 square mile tract of land with frontage on the river. By late 1926, negotiations with the Brazilian government resulted in the offer of a land grant, tax remission, and police protection. The new organization, named Companhia Industrial do Brasil, was announced on October 11, 1927. Captain Einar Oxholm of the Ford steamer Lake Ormoc sailed into the region with the initial shipments of supplies. Headquarters was in the small settlement of Boa Vista, later named Fordlandia, 110 miles up the Tapajos from the Amazon. Soon thereafter, Oxholm replaced Blakeley as manager of the plantation even though he had no experience in agriculture or botany. He oversaw the continued clearing of the land, the development of infrastructure (including the buildings, terraces, roads, and other facilities), and the continued planting of the rubber trees. Oxholm, facing numerous challenges ranging from hostile local officials to disgruntled laborers, and along with plant diseases affecting the rubber tree seedlings, left the job disillusioned in 1930. Victor Perini, John Rogge, and Archibald Johnston followed as managers. By 1933, a new location farther downstream on the Tapajos called Belterra became the showplace of Ford's Brazilian plantations. In December 1945, the Ford Motor Company disposed of its rubber interests in Brazil, and the areas were placed under control of the Brazilian Northern Agronomical Institute.