Editing Teapot Dome scandal (section)

==History==
[[File:Teapot Rock postcard crop.jpg|thumb|Teapot Dome (including [[Teapot Rock]]) around the time of the scandal, depicted in a {{Circa|1922}} postcard]]
To ensure that the Navy would always have enough fuel, [[ President Taft]] designated several oil-producing areas as naval oil reserves. In 1921, President Harding issued an [[executive order]] to transfer control of [[Teapot Rock| Teapot Dome Oil Field]] in [[Natrona County, Wyoming]], and the [[Elk Hills Oil Field |Elk Hills]] and [[Buena Vista Oil Field]]s in [[Kern County, California]], from the [[United States Department of the Navy| Navy Department]] to the [[ Department of the Interior]]. This was not implemented until the next year, when Interior Secretary Fall persuaded [[ Navy Secretary]] [[Edwin C. Denby]] to implement the order.

Later in 1922, Fall leased oil production rights at Teapot Dome to [[Harry F. Sinclair]] of Mammoth Oil, a subsidiary of [[Sinclair Oil Corporation]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=McHugh |first=Erin |title=Political Suicide |date=2016 |publisher=Pegasus Books |isbn=978-1-60598-978-5 |location=New York |pages=242}}</ref> He also leased the Elk Hills reserve to [[Edward L. Doheny]] of [[Pan American Petroleum and Transport Company]]. Both leases were issued without competitive bidding; leasing without bids was legal under the [[Mineral Leasing Act of 1920]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 as Amended (re-transcribed 2007-08-07) |url= http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ut/vernal_fo/lands___minerals.Par.6287.File.dat/MineralLeasingAct1920.pdf |access-date=September 8, 2014 |publisher=Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior}}</ref>

The lease terms were very favorable to the oil companies, and secret transactions associated with the two deals made Fall a rich man. He received a no-interest loan from Doheny of $100,000<ref>{{Cite web |date= November 23, 1926 |title= FALL AND DOHENY FIGHT TO BAR SENATE RECORDS ON $100,000 CASH LOAN; VITAL POINT IS RAISED : Defense Halts Move to Bare Admissions Made by Doheny. COURT AWAITS ARGUMENT McLean Testifies That Fall Asked Him to Subscribe to a Falsehood on Loan. LENROOT RELATES EVASIONS Senator Says the Ex-Secretary Finally Asserted Publisher Was Source of Funds. Witnesses Tell of Efforts by Fall to Hide Source of $100,000 Loan |url= https://www.nytimes.com/1926/11/25/archives/fall-and-doheny-fight-to-bar-senate-records-on-100000-cash-loan.html |work=New York Times}}</ref>
in November 1921 (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|0.1|1921|r=2}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{inflation/fn|US}}). He received other gifts from Doheny and Sinclair totaling about $404,000 (equivalent to ${{inflation|US|0.404|1921|r=2}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}{{inflation/fn|US}}). While the leases were legal, these transactions were not. Fall attempted to keep them secret, but a sudden improvement in his [[standard of living]] raised suspicions. He paid up his ranch taxes, for example, which had been as much as 10 years past due. [[Carl Magee]], who later founded ''[[The Albuquerque Tribune]]'', wrote about this sudden affluence and also brought it to the attention of the Senate investigation.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Roberts |first=Chalmers M. |date=June 9, 1977 |title=Uncovering a Coverup on Teapot Dome |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/06/09/uncovering-a-coverup-on-teapot-dome/93c16e16-8e32-4bf0-aabd-bb83c9bebd0d/ |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]}}</ref>