NRHP Reference # 74002028 Year built 1922 Nearest city Midwest | Area 4 ha Added to NRHP 30 December 1974 | |
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Location Natrona County, Wyoming, USA Similar Masonic Temple, North Casper Clubhouse, Townsend Hotel, Fantasy Canyon, Elks Lodge No 1353 | ||
Teapot Rock is a distinctive sedimentary rock formation in Natrona County, Wyoming that lent its name to a nearby oil field that became notorious as the focus of a bribery scandal during the Presidential administration of Warren G. Harding, the Teapot Dome scandal. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Map of Teapot Rock, Wyoming 82601, USA
The eroded sandstone formation stands about 75 feet (23 m) tall and is about 300 feet (91 m) in circumference. It is located a few hundred yards east of Wyoming Highway 259, about 19 miles (31 km) north of Casper, Wyoming in the Powder River Basin near Teapot Creek, a tributary of Salt Creek.
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 (9.7 km) east. 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.
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 at the time, would have sufficient fuel reserves in an emergency. It was one of several related fields in the area, the largest of which was the Salt Creek Oil Field. By comparison with the Salt Creek Field's peak production of 35,301,608 barrels (5,612,507.2 m3) of 1923, the Teapot Dome field had about 64 wells, with few producing more than 150 barrels per day (24 m3/d).
In February 2015, the field was sold by the Department of Energy.