Mensa Presents: Fordlandia- The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
In 1927, Henry Ford, the richest man in the world, bought a tract of land twice the size of Delaware in the Brazilian Amazon. His intention was to grow rubber, but the project rapidly evolved into a more ambitious bid to re-create small-town America itself, along with its golf courses, ice cream shops, bandstands, indoor plumbing, and Model T's in the most complex ecological area on earth. It was called Fordlandia and its eventual demise as a rubber plantation and rise as a tropical boomtown, foreshadowed the practices that today are laying waste to the rain forest.On Saturday, April 19th, Mensa is providing a rare opportunity to learn more about this fascinating subject. Using rare photos from the 1920s and '30s, this little known tale of Ford Motor Company and American history will be presented by Ford corporate historian Robert C Kreipke.
Doors open at 730pm for mingling. The program starts at 8:00pm.
Mensa presents speakers on the third Saturday of most months. These programs are open to the public. Admission- adult members: $4, adult non-members: $5, Children 13 and under: $2. For more information, please see MensaDetroit.com
