Brazil's Wild West

Americans have always dreamed of the great frontier, where the wind blows free--and land is cheap. Last week many a land-hungry U.S. citizen thought that he had found a frontier where land is so cheap that a few cents buys an acre. The new frontier is in Brazil, where a giant land development push is rivaling the rough days of the American West. Along with Brazilians, Japanese and Germans, hundreds of U.S. investors have bought cattle and coffee ranches, speculated heavily in still-uncleared jungle lands along the route of projected highways and railroads.

Spurred by Brazil's great push to develop its interior, 15 U.S. companies are peddling land in Brazil. Every month the U.S. embassy gets 100 letters of inquiry about land deals. A Georgia square-dance caller who wanted a plot of land wrote directly to U.S. Ambassador John M. Cabot, promised, "If you help me out, kind sir, we'll build a barn and have a square dance that'll make all sit up and take notice. Free lessons for you and Mrs. Ambassador if you're willing."

Like any great speculation, the Brazilian boom has attracted its share of swindlers and shady companies. Convicted Texas Swindler Benjack Cage once promoted a land development company that is now in more reputable hands, has sold nearly 200,000 acres to Americans for more than $1,000,000.

"Texas Ranches." The Rockefeller brothers own 40% of a 1,000,000-acre cattle ranch in the rich Mato Grosso (see map}, which they operate jointly with Brazil's Ambassador to Washington Walther Moreira Salles.

Only 50 miles from Brazil's new $500 million inland capital, Brasilia (TIME, April 25), Singer Mary Martin and her husband Richard Halliday have a 1,200-acre ranch where they raise coffee, sugar and chickens. Says Broadway Producer Halliday: "The climate is the amazing thing. It has a steady temperature (about 72DEG) twelve months of the year." Cowboy Roy Rogers recently bought 2,000 acres near Brasilia. Says Rogers optimistically: "Land is dirt cheap there now, just like in the Old West. But in ten or 15 years it will be worth a fortune."

Many U.S. buyers have already done well on their Brazilian land speculations. Pan American Airways Vice President Humphrey Toomey bought 105 acres just outside Brasilia for $1,800 six months ago. Now he is selling it in quarter-acre lots, expects to get $156,000. Land Developer Mike Borman bought 36,000 acres northeast of Brasilia for $15,000 two years ago, is selling it off in 25-acre "Texas Ranches" for $10 down and $10 per month.

The impetus for the boom is the recent opening of Brasilia and the continued growth of railways and highways in the interior under the sponsorship of Brazil's hurry-up President Juscelino Kubitschek. (His slogan: "Fifty years of progress in five.") Paved highways have increased from 6,000 miles to 10,000 miles in the past four years. Last week Kubitschek embarked on a new project: he ordered a 480-mile highway from Manaus to Porto Velho (see map}, in the wild Amazonas state, to be built by 1961.

Dry-Gulched. There are also birds of prey at work. One woe-begotten speculator complained to the U.S. embassy in Rio that he had bought, from a group describing themselves as California missionaries, 2,000 eroded acres that proved to be a dirt road instead of a highway, and had a dry gulch in the middle instead of a gushing stream. The embassy warns all comers that titles held even by legitimate land development companies may be clouded, and that in the great growth areas of Mato Grosso or Goias frequently a purchaser "must take possession and actively defend the title if he expects to retain effective control of his property." Mary Martin's husband adds: "It's best to go down and see what you're getting and be sure your agent is reliable."

For those willing to take the risk, rewards can be sizable, since Brazil has low capital-gains and inheritance taxes. With a good superintendent on a salary or shares, a coffee, cacao, carnauba-wax plantation or cattle ranch can be made to pay for itself within six years.

Some of the boom areas:

P: Northwest Parana state, where Brazilian-born, Harvard-educated ('24), Alberto Byington bulldozed 1,000 miles of dirt roads on the 1,000,000-acre site that he received from the Brazilian government for building a railroad. Last year Byington sold $1,000,000 worth of 60-acre sites for coffee farms at $35 per acre.

P: Northern Goias state, opened up last year by the new highway between Brasilia and Belem, is good for cattle raising, offers land for as low as 50-c- per acre.

P: Southern Goias, where land sells for $10 to $20 per acre, is good for cattle and many crops. It has many U.S. landowners, a new railroad abuilding.

P: Mato Grosso's southern Pantanal, flood-basin plains, is a first-class cattle country with miserable roads but improving rail service. Land there costs $1.50 to $2 per acre. In the northern Mato Grosso lands of Gleba Arinos (named for the adjoining river), a German-Brazilian family, incorporated as Coromali, is developing 750,000 acres, selling guaranteed titles for $2 per acre. Coromali will also contract to clear, plant and administer ranches.

How solid is the boom? As solid as Brazil's future, say top government officials. In the past five years U.S. private investments in Brazil have doubled to more than $1.4 billion. Brazil's real gross national product is increasing 10% a year, and the nation's 65 million population is expected to swell to 100 million by 1975. Although there is wild inflation, land values have risen faster than the cruzeiro has depreciated.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.