Teapot Rock

Teapot Rock is a rock formation in Natrona County, Wyoming. A nearby oil field is named after the rock. The oil field was the focus of a bribery scandal during the administration of Warren G. Harding, the Teapot Dome scandal. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The eroded sandstone formation is  tall and is about  in circumference.  It is a few hundred yards east of Wyoming Highway 259, about  north of Casper, Wyoming in the Powder River Basin near Teapot 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  east.

In 1915, U.S. Navy was converting its ships to oil-fired boilers. The Navy bought the Teapot Dome Oil Field. It was called "Naval Petroleum Reserve Number Three" as part of a program to ensure that the  Navy 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  of 1923, the Teapot Dome field had about 64 wells, with few producing more than 150 barrels per day (24 m3/d).

References

Other websites
Photographs of Teapot Rock  at the National Park Service's NRHP database
Teapot Rock  at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office
http://wiki.wyomingplaces.org/w/page/12716496/Teapot-Rock 

Category:National Register of Historic Places
Category:Geography of Wyoming
Category:Landforms of the United States