When Henry Ford Tried to Build a City in the Amazon - Past Gas #12

In the early 1900s, Henry Ford devised a plan: buy a swath of Amazonian rainforest, build the ultimate utopian factory, and grow some rubber, basically a rubber plantation. Unfortunately, that would be a lot easier said than done. Join James and Nolan as they recount the wild and ill-fated story of Fordlandia.
Follow James on IG and Twitter @jamespumphrey
Follow Nolan on IG and Twitter @nolanjsykes
Follow Donut @donutmedia.
►LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE!
bit.ly/PastGas
Donut Media brings you some of the craziest stories from all of automotive history in their new podcast "Past Gas!". Hosts James Pumphrey and Nolan Sykes walk you through incredible stories behind your favorite cars and manufacturers, like underground Japanese racing clubs, bitter racing rivalries and how some of your favorite classic cars came to be. Remember, it's about cars, not about farts.
►Check out more Donut Media Videos: • Evolution of the Porsc... .
►Subscribe here: bit.ly/1JQ3qvO
►Want a Donut shirt or sticker? www.donut.media/
►Like us on Facebook: / donutmedia
Donut Media is at the center of digital media for the next generation of automotive and motorsports enthusiasts. We are drivers, drifters, and car enthusiasts who love to tell stories.

[@Drerex]

One piece of that history to add to this story. My Great Great Great Grandfather (Willard Brandenburg), was in real estate up in Detroit and was sent to South America by Henry Ford to find land for his rubber plant. On his journey back via boat, he ended up catching Yellow Fever which in result ended up dying from the illness. He was the first guy to die from Yellow Fever in Detroit. Found out he had to be buried in a glass style coffin because back then they were worried the virus would spread threw the soil or something. Weird.

[@dustyrhodes1655]

Not impressed pal.

[@bigpapieddie]

That green DELL logo tho 😂😂

[@kurtbarrett6785]

Talk about a brilliant move, having a dude named Leupold scope out locations...

[@McCormicMusicStudios]

Nice!

[@jonintheredZ06]

And it is fitting that a man named Barrett would recognize a Leupold...

[@GuyFawkesWitChu]

I’ve used a Leupold on an xm107.

[@MrScotty5877304]

"I am Henry Ford now behold my Jew flattening machine! Simply get behind the wheel point it at a jew and flatten em!"....." Couldnt we just use it to get places?"......." Well yeah...yeah you could and you could also use the Mona lisa as a place mat, Jesus christ!" Got to love family guy 🤣

[@marajade2932]

Mustang drivers that hit people going 20 and run away... 'They're just in the way, cant you see... its built for that, I wasnt even aiming at them'...ect. X_X

[@jchrizzy6995]

The crew laughing in the back sometimes is great

[@brianingle7535]

Donut is such a fantastic channel. From Money Pit and B2B to the podcast. Excellent production and "fit and finish". Thank you for what you do!! You guys are all awesome!

[@tmaua]

I'm from Brazil, it would be a pleasure to visit Fordlândia with you guys 😂

[@juanmanuelpenaloza9264]

Apparently Henry Ford and Walt Disney were ASEEBFLs (Anti-Semitic Eccentric Entrepreneurial Besties for Life)

[@aldoagnellini756]

ford, disney & hitler.

[@rustedratchetgarage6788]

Lol family guys clip of Henry Ford Jew flattening machine comes to mind

[@James-May]

Heh.

[@gtx-808]

Just like Trump & Epstein both are weirdos wait a minute they were really friends 😂

[@michaelmace924]

This is the 1st documentary I've seen you make, I can't wait to watch it. Lol

[@eurosonly]

It's so good to have James back on these podcasts.

[@flamcheeseful]

The anti-Semitism drenched in sarcasm was hilarious. Tough to make that a funny subject but you guy did well.

[@keithdosik]

Henry ford didn’t invent the assembly line, he popularized it

[@thesquiddy2273]

not even true, Ford pioneered a modified version of it, which was much more efficient than the method Ransom E. Olds invented. That modification being the moving(Ford) vs. stationary(Olds) assembly lines. And, of course, when a better version of an idea is out there, of course manufacturers are going to choose it over the latter.

[@Ted_Stryker]

​@@thesquiddy2273 Actually, just one of many little known facts about Ford is that he didn't pioneer the moving assembly line himself. He was given the idea as part of a deal to make parts in Germany c1912. They had already been testing the process at a factory there. Ford himself claimed he was astonished by the efficiency of the process as he wrote about it in a little known note to himself, which he had apparently once intended to include in his memoirs.

[@bayareanewman1566]

TIL That Donut 🍩 podcasts are a thing! I had no idea! New subscriber!!!

[@sirachasauce2482]

My Grandfather from Vietnam has a rubber farm, where the trees are carved where it’s will still be alive but slowly bleeds out the Latex. This increases the amount of rubber and he exports them to various companies and has became an extremely rich dude. With money comes power... that power is 7 wife’s. Yes he has 7 wife’s

[@randallmason9687]

Your Grandfather is a Legend!!

[@HazaraMasih]

Hello from Pakistan. Working my way through all your podcasts. Thanks for your great content.

[@fabi6560]

UNCLE JAMES IS BACK!!! 😍😍💪

[@thejuice_2273]

Thank god jimmy pumps is back

[@jg5733]

More Renault/Citroen/Peugeot please; we need more french cars in the states. I only really know of them from rally games and top gear. Those new Clios w/ aggressive af headlights. Will buy tmrw, will do unspeakable things if necessary.

[@montyrobins]

Tries doing a Churchill impression. ends up doing a pretty solid Boris Johnson impression

[@MaziEmdi]

Past Gas Podcast!... Mo pawa tu’ya baybay!!

[@dangervybz7522]

Not you literally diving into Winston Churchill’s supposed voice 😂 levels!

[@jeromespiteri1801]

You guys are amazing. This was the first of the donut podcast I listened to, and it's still my favourite one that you guys have recorded.

[@personwithaname5569]

Yall outta do a up to speed about donut media

[@dremoore9436]

I want Nolan to read me a book 🤣

[@RannoRannikmaa]

sounds like you mix Churchill with Nixon

[@iswitis]

JAMES IS BACKKK!!! HECK YESSSSS!!! glad you see you're okay and up and going James!

[@3squ1l0]

An American businessman building an industrial town in Brazil to source their materials sounds crazy until you find out that Milton S. Hershey (the chocolate guy) did the SAME THING in Cuba 10 years prior. Central Hershey: 35 miles east of Havana & built in 1918. My head canon tells me that Ford got the idea from Hershey

[@chasespeer251]

a couple minutes in and I am impressed by James' Winston Churchill

[@ninjabongtoker1]

I like the way james explains climate change everyone is usually so polarized by the topic. It's kind of like he said yea don't pollute stuff. Which is really supposed to be the whole point of climate change.

[@Optiganone]

I'm a climate change denier so go on and boo-hoo me, but it's not like i believe that combustion engines do not produce emissions, or smog is good for your lungs, it's just i don't think that climate is changing and it's man-caused. You can be both environmentalist and climate change denier.

[@_triplj9982]

@@Optiganone so a man-made engine gives off emissions but humans don't contribute to climate change?

[@Optiganone]

@@_triplj9982 it's is debatable if "climate change" is even a thing that actually happens right now, and if it is indeed, then to what extent it is caused by co2 emissions. And i'm not going to do that, because i would have to rewatch few hours of conspiracy documentaries i saw bazillion years ago in order to at least give impression that i don't talk out of my ass, lol. I'm only into this issue because i see how it is exploited politically

[@ElliWoelfin]

@voist magina I love seeing someone express it in a way I can't (I believe [controversial thing] but I can't give specifics because it'll take forever to relearn). It's pretty funny how well people accept something if someone with a huge stake and a lot to gain/lose says a thing (especially if it's on the very controllable TV), but when an unaffilliated third-party says opposite it's an insane idiotic schitzophrenic conspiracy.

[@cstrutherskgs]

@@Optiganone no it’s not really debatable you just don’t want to accept it. It’s literally called the greenhouse effect to so how simple of a concept it is.

[@kylegoodman3463]

Listening to this episode on a slow morning at work with my coffee! 😂👌🏽

[@jabbafo]

This feels like I'm class and the two kids have been asked to read out loud

[@jaime3974]

You ever read a comment and say dang I wish I said that

[@help_is_bail]

Jaime I wish I wrote that

[@galacticgamer850]

Lol relatable

[@rustedratchetgarage6788]

Nope they're mine.

[@ContrarianConcervativePNW]

Bombas donates mass amounts of their comfy AF socks to the youth shelters here in Seattle

[@davidbouey4022]

you guys need to show example pics of the thing you’re mentioning pleaseeee!!

[@franciscopissaco7532]

SULTAN OF BRUNEI CAR COLLECTION PLEASE!!!

[@technom3598]

Please either do an up to speed or a pod cast on E.L cord. The guy was a riot. Kinda the countries first corporate conman. Seriously the story is fascinating. Make sure you go through the car business but then on to la real estate and air lines. It's great

[@derrickstorm6976]

It's great to hear someone at times laughing with these two

[@sidneybrierly2315]

i love how it says "dell" on the back of his macbook!!!

[@briandavis577]

Just a slight correction. Ford didn’t invent the assembly line, but he invented the “moving” assembly line.

[@B_I_G_Tasty]

Out here binging a year later

[@leonardosouza6290]

Thumbs up! Is in Brasil(Brazil)...is a phantom city now! Sad....it could be fantastic...

[@medevilmonkey]

Favorite video on Sundays, keep it up guys

[@87isbmw]

These podcasts are literally saving my lige thank you guya so fucking much.

[@Miklosrobi]

I love these guys :) I mean James and Nolan

[@TaylorMade4Zero]

2 HOURS FOR TO GO 20 MILES!!! I knew LA traffic was bad but fuck that I would die.

[@RubenGonzalez-bs5rh]

Tucker Motors and Hunts Catchup used asembly lines before Ol Henry... Henry Stole a lot of ideas and called them their own!!!

[@mikeskidmore6754]

Fordlandia .... Seems I read a lot about it in Robert Leturnea Book on his Construction Equiptment manufacuring CO

[@TheMNrailfan227]

I’m watching this while driving a Ferrari F40 in Assetto Corsa

[@XMG3]

So when are you guys doing Ayrton Senna ??? ??? That's another certified legend for past gas fur sho !

[@bradleyjaynes4277]

He also had a second one in Brazil called belterra

[@josephjones5552]

Did he really say Churchill said I am not a crook, and not Nixon?!?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@cstrutherskgs]

Yes yes he did

[@codyhannigan6322]

I love the podcast and starting it out with the four-part Ford vs Ferrari was amazing but it seems like the jump from those episodes to this episode are drastically different in one major regard, amount of advertisements that 1 this episode it felt like I spent more time listening to ads than do history

[@shawncarrone6580]

Dude you have a Dell!🤯🤯

[@brianargo9306]

A lot of your military bases are like that just like the military base or should I say Air Force Base in Montgomery here in Alabama it has its own stores, Malls, shopping centers, movie theaters, golf courses, you name it they have it just like a small city behind a fence. It's wild to think and know that they have places like that

[@eaubfelangy8132]

Welcome back James!!!

[@motormusic7622]

Great Churchill impression tbh

[@PrinceofPwnage]

I'm trying to find the episode where they talk about "think tanks"

[@PontiacFan68]

You should do these podcasts live on KZbin.

[@x-calibergaming2341]

nice hat, lov it

[@hotstankygarbage788]

Ford the OG soiboi

[@VencedorGamer]

Stupid KZbin, you didn't need to put 2 minute ads in the video, Donut Media already did their own 2 minute and 30 second ads!

[@PaButters]

I fckn love this podcast

[@omahasho4658]

I’m guessing you guys didn’t watch the documentary about catching one of the last nazi ppl left on earth, in there they legit showed the ford factory and said most of the higher power nazis came and hid in America and started there family’s here and I heard a lot of them worked for ford, as he saw his workers come to work then “disappear into the night” when there shifts where over it was a really cool car fact, but kinda weird ford had nazis working for him maybe that’s why he was so anti Jew if I think about that now or maybe that’s why the nazis moved there to work for him either way

[@charlesgale4257]

after ww2 it was already abandoned.

[@nathgibs03]

Reminds me of amazon

[@graysonparker9266]

The Subaru cult never had cool jumpsuits, but it is still going strong to this day.

[@Agueroooo]

“He envisioned a place where his workers would never have to leave the workplace” so slavery, he reinvented slavery.

[@joemosselli65]

This was so interesting

[@elioutdoors8119]

It wasn’t Winston Churchill it was Neville Chamberlain Prime Minister at the time

[@glauria]

Donut Brasil would be a great idea😏🇧🇷

[@christianteddy]

I know Harvey Firestone's great or great great grandson. I used to work with him at Hibdons. Will not give his first name, as it is personal, although I'm sure i could take a picture with him and you could compare the looks because they look very similar. (obviously they'd look alike)

[@monsterkj2]

I live in iron mountain and those buildings are still standing mostly abandoned tho

[@rustedratchetgarage6788]

Grow spots!

[@debknow8441]

Do a podcast about Japanese midnight club group

[@djkatss1]

DAD YOUR BACK!!!!

[@davidleroth8644]

35:44 James picks his nose

[@thatcanadian3240]

Lol I saw it

[@joshshelby7322]

Do one about all the auto industrys strikes

[@rat_king-]

Ever see the 1960's Aldous Huzley a brave new world?..... it'd look like that @Donut Podcasts

[@marajade2932]

What a title... No more Nos James^_^👍

[@javierarmandocruzsantos2152]

Why do the condition of the Amazon workers sound like the conditions of Amazon workers

[@prodbybobby]

Crazy how 20 miles in cali is a 2hr drive, but in ny its like 40 min or less lmao 😭

[@debknow8441]

Do a podcast about Firestone

[@justinclendenin2234]

Let's talk about slant six’s

[@Scott-S-]

Amsoil has a testing facility as well

[@elioutdoors8119]

Infamy was Roosevelt and Winston Churchill was not prime mister until 1940

[@sheiladavis2304]

Henry loved his workers! He always took care of them. That's why he took it as such a stab in the back when they unionized.

[@medeirosbrendon]

Pra quem quer uma versão em português, tem um podcast chamado Geopizza, que fez um ep. enorme falando sobre a Fordlândia.

[@KarlDeets]

Assembly line wasn't Ford's invention. Oldsmobile had an assembly line for engines, Ford was the first to use one for the whole car.

[@danielbreault5419]

It’s weird not seeing joe

[@szn00]

Well come back on the podcast BIG boi👍

[@DeltaBird2269]

Yo... who's packin a lip xD I see the tin on the ground

[@mattmatthews5414]

Ew.

[@MrScotty5877304]

Is james back or was this pre recorded?

[@chefdon21]

scott matthews pre recorded

[@ItsYaBoiTurbo]

6:02 so western cherchhill is now a I guess

[@peterinbrat]

Rubber process not even close, lol. They scored the trees to draw the latex then slowly drizzle into rubber kegs over a slow fire.

[@NovocaineTV]

20:35 to be fare to Fords thought of small town america, Detroit was the largest city in the world at that time.

[@neoblanks]

That was Nixon, James. Nixon...

[@MLblackout]

oh i like this

[@Cooe.]

3:55 _facepalm_ That wasn't Churchill. That was Richard Nixon... -_-

[@rodrigonogueiramota4433]

"trying to implement the american way of life in the middle of the Amazon jungle in Brazil" clearly Mr.Ford never understood how Brazilians can be stubborn

[@Justogr]

Please consider doing a Camel Trophy podcast!!!!!

[@michaelsimoneau8364]

LOL balls to the walls XD

[@scoobydoodandy4296]

Can't remember where it came from but I'm pretty sure HJF "adapted" assembly line principle from another industry. He was the first to use for automotive industry.

[@thesquiddy2273]

sort of, yes. Ransom E. Olds, founder of Oldsmobile, was the first to use the assembly line in the automotive industry, but it was the stationary assembly line. Henry Ford adapted it to make the moving assembly line, which was much more efficient, and it was a first for any industry and is the assembly line known and loved today.

[@scoobydoodandy4296]

@@thesquiddy2273 Cool, thanks for the info. I believe the Terracotta Army of China was made on a production line of sorts too so maybe this was the earliest example of such. Wouldn't have been moving line either.