Teapot Rock

Teapot Rock
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Teapot Rock in 2017
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Location	Natrona County, Wyoming, US
Nearest city	Midwest, Wyoming
Coordinates	43°14′0″N 106°18′40″W
Built	1922
NRHP reference No.	74002028[1]
Added to NRHP	December 30, 1974

Teapot Rock, also Teapot Dome, is a distinctive sedimentary rock formation and nearby oil field in Natrona County, Wyoming that became the focus of the Teapot Dome bribery scandal during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.[1]

Description

The eroded sandstone formation stands about 75 feet (25 m) tall and is about 300 feet (90 m) in circumference. It is located a few hundred yards east of Wyoming Highway 259, about 19 miles (30 km) north of Casper, Wyoming in the Powder River Basin near Teapot Creek, a tributary of Salt Creek.[2]

Teapot Rock on an old postcard from around 1922

The outline of the rock once resembled a teapot and gave its name to several man-made and natural features, including a geologic structural uplift known as the Teapot Dome, and an oil field about 6 miles (10 km) east.[1] Over time, the features that gave the formation its name have been eroded by windstorms; the "handle" disappeared in 1930 and the "spout" in 1962.[3]

History

In 1915, the Teapot Dome Oil Field was designated Naval Petroleum Reserve Number Three as part of a program to ensure that the U.S. Navy, which was converting to oil-fired boilers, would have sufficient fuel reserves in an emergency.[2][4] It was one of several fields in the area, the largest of which was the Salt Creek Oil Field. By comparison to the Salt Creek Field peak production of 35,301,608 barrels (5,612,507.2 m^3) in 1923, the Teapot Dome field had about 64 wells, with a few producing more than 150 barrels per day (24 m^3/d).[2]

In February 2015, the field was sold by the Department of Energy to a private firm.[5][6]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
2. Junge, Mark (June 1974). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form: Teapot Rock". National Park Service. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
3. Brooke, James (September 18, 1998). "Site of Earlier Scandal Frets Over Faded Luster". The New York Times.
4. "Teapot Rock (Dome)". Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved August 7, 2009.
5. Ryssdal, Kai (February 2, 2015). "Moving on from Teapot Dome, 90-plus years later". Marketplace.
6. Guillén, Alex (January 30, 2015). "Government sells Teapot Dome – on the level, this time". Politico.

External links

• "Teapot Rock", NRHP database (PDF) (photographs), National Park Service
• Teapot Rock, Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
• "Teapot Rock", Wyoming places (wiki)
• Historic American Engineering Record documentation, filed under Midwest, Natrona County, WY:
  • • HAER No. WY-100, "Teapot Dome Oilfield", 6 photos, 42 data pages, 3 photo caption pages
    • HAER No. WY-100-A, "Teapot Dome Oilfield, Tank Ring No. 2016", 3 photos, 14 data pages, 2 photo caption pages
    • HAER No. WY-100-B, "Teapot Dome Oilfield, Mammoth Camp Sewer Facility", 4 photos, 15 data pages, 2 photo caption pages