Transcript The Teapot Dome Scandal

The Teapot Dome Scandal
Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center on the Teapot Dome
Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 near Midwest, Wyoming.
• In the early part of the 20th century large oil reserves
were discovered in Elk Hills, California and Teapot
Dome, Wyoming.
• In 1912 President William Taft
decided that the government owned
the land and its’ oil reserves should
be set aside for the use of the
United States Navy.
• On 4th June, 1920, Congress passed a bill that stated that the
Secretary of the Navy would have the power "to conserve,
develop, use and operate the same in his discretion, directly or
by contract, lease, or otherwise, and to use, store, exchange, or
sell the oil and gas products thereof, and those from all royalty
oil from lands in the naval reserves, for the benefit of the
United States."
• In March of 1921, President Warren Harding appointed
Albert Fall as Secretary of the Interior.
Pres. Warren Harding
Secretary of the
Interior Albert Fall
Why
But that’s
didn’t
you say
Naval
so, Ed?
property!
You’ve got
You
a
can’t
deal!
drill
there!
Secretary of the
Interior Albert Fall
Harry
Sinclair
(Mammoth
Oil Corp.)
Yo, Albert buddy! How
Maybe
$100,000
about letting Edward
would
helpforyou
and I drill
oil change
in Elk
your
Hills
andmind!
Teapot
Dome!
Edward L.
Doheny (PanAmerican
Petroleum)
• Later that year Fall decided that two of his friends, Harry F.
Sinclair (Mammoth Oil Corporation) and Edward L. Doheny
(Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company), should be
allowed to lease part of these Naval Reserves.
• In 1923, Harding
died of a heart attack.
Vice-President Calvin
Coolidge took over.
• In 1927, Fall was found guilty of accepting a $100,000 bribe
from Doheny. He was forced to resign from office and spent
one year in jail.
• The land was naval property, and should not have been
leased to private oil companies.