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.