Background: Elk Hills and Buena
Vista Hills in Kern County, California, and
Teapot Dome in Natrona County, Wyoming, were oil fields located
on public land reserved for emergency use by the U.S. Navy only
when the regular oil supplies diminished. Many politicians and
private oil interests had opposed the limits placed on the oil fields,
claiming that the reserves were unnecessary and that American oil
companies could provide for the Navy. One of the public officials most
avidly opposed to the reserves was New MexicoRepublicanSenatorAlbert B. Fall. A
political alliance ensured his appointment to the
Senate in 1912, and his political allies – who later made up the infamous Ohio Gang–
convinced President Harding to appoint Fall as United States Secretary
of the Interior in March 1921.