land in Central America included pranks, sabotage, legal challenges, and approached outright violence. In 1928, a Cuyamel Fruit boat was discovered with a cache of weapons aboard. In 1929, the United States Department of State facilitated discussions between Zemurray and United Fruit to merge their companies and end the conflict, which was endangering American interests abroad. A deal was completed in 1929, in which Zemurray sold Cuyamel to United Fruit for $31.5 million in stock, making him one of the richest people in the United States. Though Zemurray had prided himself on independence, he sold his company because of increasing pressure from the Department of State and because of the financial insecurity brought on by the Great Depression in 1929. As part of the deal with United Fruit, Zemurray agreed to retire from the banana business entirely, to make sure he would not start a new fruit company and continue to compete with United Fruit. During this two year period, Zemurray remodeled his ornate Beaux Arts mansion in New Orleans at 2 Audubon Place. He also acquired in 1928 Houltonwood, a 25,000-acre plantation located near Hammond, Louisiana, which became a favorite retreat of Zemurray for the rest of his life. United Fruit suffered financially because of mismanagement and the Great Depression, so much so that its stock declined in value by 90% after it acquired Cuyamel. This encouraged Zemurray to return to the banana business by buying a controlling share of United Fruit and voting out the board of directors. Zemurray reorganized the company, decentralized decision-making and made the company profitable once more. Leading United Fruit Company After the sale of Cuyamel, United Fruit's business declined because of the impact of the Great Depression. In Zemurray's view, the company could be managed better to handle the economic downturn. Though he sent a letter and attended a board meeting, United Fruit's management was not interested in his ideas. Zemurray then visited individual United Fruit shareholders and collected their proxies, which would enable him to gain control of the company. He then attended a United Fruit board meeting, in which he produced the proxies, dramatically saying, "You've been fucking up this business long enough. I'm going to straighten it out." Now as president of United Fruit Company, Zemurray succeeded in improving business. He considered his hands-on approach of visiting banana plantations to be the key to his success. He gained a detailed