Case file · Haunting
The 'Devil's Railway'
The Madeira-Mamoré railway, built through the forest of Rondônia from 1907 to 1912 to carry Bolivian rubber, was nicknamed the Ferrovia do Diabo for the thousands of workers who died of malaria, yellow fever and accidents.
1912 CE · -8.76, -63.91 · status: legend
The account
The saying that 'one man died for every sleeper' became part of its legend. The line from Porto Velho to Guajará-Mirim opened just as the rubber boom collapsed and closed in 1972.
The sceptical view
The real toll, estimated in the thousands, was smaller than the legend's 'a death per sleeper'.