Excerpt
Chapter 1: What Was Teapot Dome?
You wouldn’t think a giant government scandal would be named after something that sounds like it belongs in your kitchen, but here we are—Teapot Dome. Doesn’t it sound like a place where you’d pour a cup of tea and relax with a cookie? In real life, though, Teapot Dome had nothing to do with tea, cookies, or relaxation. It had everything to do with oil, secret deals, and powerful people trying to get rich without playing fair.
Let’s start with the name. Teapot Dome is a real place in Wyoming. The land there has a rock formation that looks kind of like a teapot sitting on a dome-shaped hill. It even has a little spout sticking out. That’s how it got its name—pretty simple. But what’s underneath that land is what made it valuable. Buried deep below the ground was something people in the 1920s were wild about: oil.
Oil wasn’t just about filling up a gas tank back then. It was used to power Navy ships, machines, and all kinds of equipment. If you controlled oil, you controlled something powerful. And in the 1920s, the U.S. government decided that certain areas of land with oil under them—called oil reserves—should be saved for emergencies, especially for the Navy. Teapot Dome was one of those special reserves.
Now here’s where things start to get messy.
The person in charge of protecting places like Teapot Dome was a government official named Albert Fall. His job was to look after land and natural resources—things like forests, rivers, parks, and oil reserves. Fall was part of President Warren G. Harding’s Cabinet, which is a group of leaders who help the president run the country. Sounds important, right? It was.
But instead of guarding the Teapot Dome oil like he was supposed to, Fall did something sneaky. He secretly gave permission for a few big oil companies to drill there—without asking other parts of the government or letting anyone else bid on the chance. That means he didn’t let other companies try to win the contract in a fair competition. It was like he handed over the keys without telling anyone.
Why would he do that? That’s where the scandal part comes in.
In exchange for letting those companies drill, Fall got some “gifts.” But they weren’t birthday cards or fruit baskets. He got money—lots of it. He also received fancy cattle, land, and even free use of someone’s ranch. It wasn’t a tiny favor between friends. It was bribery, plain and simple. The oil companies made millions. And Fall? He got very rich, very quickly.
For a while, almost nobody knew what had happened. The deals were kept quiet. Fall acted like nothing unusual was going on. But things like that don’t stay secret forever. People started to notice that Fall suddenly had way more money than he used to. Reporters, lawmakers, and everyday citizens started asking questions. They wanted to know: Why was Teapot Dome being used? Who said it was okay? And where did all that money go?
As the truth came out, people were shocked. This wasn’t a small mistake or a tiny oops. This was a major act of corruption, and it reached all the way into the top levels of the U.S. government. The man who was supposed to protect public land had used it to make himself and his buddies rich.
And it wasn’t just Teapot Dome. There were other oil reserves involved too, like ones in California. But Teapot Dome became the most famous, partly because of its strange name—and partly because it showed how big the problem really was.
When the public found out what happened, trust in the government took a big hit. People started wondering: If someone in the Cabinet could do this and try to hide it, what else might be going on behind the scenes? Americans were angry. They didn’t want leaders who were working in secret for money. They wanted fairness, honesty, and people who followed the rules.
This wasn’t just about oil. It was about right and wrong.
The Teapot Dome scandal showed how quickly things could go wrong when people in power think they can get away with anything. It was a wake-up call. And it led to big changes—like new rules that made it harder for government officials to take bribes or make secret deals. It also led to court cases, angry speeches in Congress, and even jail time for Albert Fall.
You wouldn’t think a giant government scandal would be named after something that sounds like it belongs in your kitchen, but here we are—Teapot Dome. Doesn’t it sound like a place where you’d pour a cup of tea and relax with a cookie? In real life, though, Teapot Dome had nothing to do with tea, cookies, or relaxation. It had everything to do with oil, secret deals, and powerful people trying to get rich without playing fair.
Let’s start with the name. Teapot Dome is a real place in Wyoming. The land there has a rock formation that looks kind of like a teapot sitting on a dome-shaped hill. It even has a little spout sticking out. That’s how it got its name—pretty simple. But what’s underneath that land is what made it valuable. Buried deep below the ground was something people in the 1920s were wild about: oil.
Oil wasn’t just about filling up a gas tank back then. It was used to power Navy ships, machines, and all kinds of equipment. If you controlled oil, you controlled something powerful. And in the 1920s, the U.S. government decided that certain areas of land with oil under them—called oil reserves—should be saved for emergencies, especially for the Navy. Teapot Dome was one of those special reserves.
Now here’s where things start to get messy.
The person in charge of protecting places like Teapot Dome was a government official named Albert Fall. His job was to look after land and natural resources—things like forests, rivers, parks, and oil reserves. Fall was part of President Warren G. Harding’s Cabinet, which is a group of leaders who help the president run the country. Sounds important, right? It was.
But instead of guarding the Teapot Dome oil like he was supposed to, Fall did something sneaky. He secretly gave permission for a few big oil companies to drill there—without asking other parts of the government or letting anyone else bid on the chance. That means he didn’t let other companies try to win the contract in a fair competition. It was like he handed over the keys without telling anyone.
Why would he do that? That’s where the scandal part comes in.
In exchange for letting those companies drill, Fall got some “gifts.” But they weren’t birthday cards or fruit baskets. He got money—lots of it. He also received fancy cattle, land, and even free use of someone’s ranch. It wasn’t a tiny favor between friends. It was bribery, plain and simple. The oil companies made millions. And Fall? He got very rich, very quickly.
For a while, almost nobody knew what had happened. The deals were kept quiet. Fall acted like nothing unusual was going on. But things like that don’t stay secret forever. People started to notice that Fall suddenly had way more money than he used to. Reporters, lawmakers, and everyday citizens started asking questions. They wanted to know: Why was Teapot Dome being used? Who said it was okay? And where did all that money go?
As the truth came out, people were shocked. This wasn’t a small mistake or a tiny oops. This was a major act of corruption, and it reached all the way into the top levels of the U.S. government. The man who was supposed to protect public land had used it to make himself and his buddies rich.
And it wasn’t just Teapot Dome. There were other oil reserves involved too, like ones in California. But Teapot Dome became the most famous, partly because of its strange name—and partly because it showed how big the problem really was.
When the public found out what happened, trust in the government took a big hit. People started wondering: If someone in the Cabinet could do this and try to hide it, what else might be going on behind the scenes? Americans were angry. They didn’t want leaders who were working in secret for money. They wanted fairness, honesty, and people who followed the rules.
This wasn’t just about oil. It was about right and wrong.
The Teapot Dome scandal showed how quickly things could go wrong when people in power think they can get away with anything. It was a wake-up call. And it led to big changes—like new rules that made it harder for government officials to take bribes or make secret deals. It also led to court cases, angry speeches in Congress, and even jail time for Albert Fall.