TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD HAER WY-100 (Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3) HAER WY-100 (NPR-3) 7.25 miles northeast of Teapot Rock and 9 miles southeast of the intersection of Wyoming 259 and Wyoming 387 Midwest vicinity Natrona County Wyoming PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD INTERMOUNTAIN REGIONAL OFFICE National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 12795 West Alameda Parkway Denver, CO 80228 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD (Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3) (NPR-3) HAER No. WY-100 Location: 7.25 miles northeast of Teapot Rock and 9 miles southeast of the intersection of Wyoming 259 and Wyoming 387, Midwest Vicinity, Natrona County, Wyoming USGS GILLAM DRAW WEST, WY Quadrangle, UTM Coordinates: Center area of Teapot Dome Oilfield: 402676.3 E – 4793772.3 N. Present Owner/ Occupant: Present Owner is Natrona County Holding, LLC, and the occupant is Stranded Oil Resources Corporation, a subsidiary of Natrona County Holdings, LLC Present Use: The Teapot Dome Oilfield (9,481 acres) area is an active oilfield, producing both oil and gas from more than 500 wells. At the time of transfer out of federal ownership (January 2015), oil production was less than 500 barrels per day. Surviving structures and infrastructure associated with the original oilfield development (1922 to 1924) are ruins and are no longer in use. Significance: The Teapot Dome Oilfield is the popular name for the 9,481-acre Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (NPR-3), significant for its 1922–24 engineering development by private producers on federal land, leading to a government scandal of national proportions. The Teapot Dome Oilfield was initially established via an Executive Order by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in 1915; however, the infamous Teapot Dome scandal and the physical development of the oilfield did not begin until 1922, under President Warren Harding’s administration. The majority of the development of the Teapot Dome Oilfield was completed by early 1924— ranging from drilling derricks to residential-operations camps to a vast storage-tank farm—with only limited development during operations by the Court appointed receivers from 1924 to 1928. In October 1927, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Circuit Court decision that the Teapot Dome lease had been fraudulently obtained, and the oilfield was officially turned over to the Navy on January 7, 1928. The Navy took steps to shut down the wells and end operations, returning the oilfield to reserve status and gradually removing most of the early 1920s operational developments. TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD HAER No. WY-100 (Page 2) Historians: James W. Steely, SWCA Environmental Consultants, assisting Mettler and Associates. Todd Stribley and Sharon Thomas, U.S. Department of Energy. Project Information: Pursuant to the January 2015 sale of NPR-3 (Teapot Dome Oilfield) and transfer from federal ownership by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to Natrona County Holdings, LLC, certain surviving structures on the historic oilfield have been documented to Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) standards. In accordance with a Programmatic Agreement between DOE, the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Officer, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and in consultation with the National Park Service, the Teapot Dome Oilfield and two surviving engineering structures from the 1922–24 development of the oilfield were recorded using HAER standards as mitigation for the transfer out of federal ownership to a private owner (Stranded Oil Resources Corporation – Natrona County Holdings, LLC). Project historian James Steely conducted the large-format photography in June 2015 at the oilfield with SWCA associate Christian Driver. DOE project manager Todd Stribley provided historic and current NPR-3 documentation for this report. TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD HAER No. WY-100 (Page 3) Part I. Historical Information A. Physical History: 1. Date(s) of construction: June 1922 through March 1924 (Trexel 1930:139, 161); and during the court ordered receivership, in July 1924 two “off-set” wells were drilled to counter new wells on private land adjacent to the Reserve; in 1925 a casinghead natural gas and gasoline collection system was installed; and in 1925 and 1926 two central- power plants replaced individual pump motors on thirty-two wells in the north area of the Reserve. 2. Architect/Engineer: Thomas W. White, Chief Engineer, Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation (Trexel 1930:139). 3. Builder/Contractor/Supplier: Multiple builders/contractors/suppliers were associated with the development of the Teapot Dome Oilfield, as follows: • Sinclair Consolidated Oil Company (SCO), contracted with: o W.H. Weaver built twenty derricks (Trexel 1930: 139). o SCO subsidiary Sinclair Pipe Line (SPL) Company erected a camp for personnel working on the Sinclair Pump Station (Trexel 1930:150). o SPL constructed the Sinclair Pump Station, the long-distance pipeline pump station at the Teapot Dome Oilfield (Trexel 1930:154). o SPL constructed a 54-mile pipeline from the Sinclair Pump Station to a new tank farm in Clayton, Wyoming (Trexel 1930:153-154). o SCO subsidiary Mammoth Oil Company contracted with: Chanute, Hardendorf, and Houston drilling companies drilled groups of wells, and to establish their own drilling camps on the Reserve (Trexel 1930:141,150). Riter-Conley Company, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, (National Petroleum News 1922:60) constructed twenty-one oil storage tanks of 55,000 to 80,000 barrels each (Trexel 1930:152). New York Oil Company installed a casinghead gas collection system and compression plant (Trexel 1930:160-61). 4. Original plans and construction: Original plans for the overall Teapot Dome Oilfield development are not known to exist. The development of the oilfield evolved as needed based on the initial well locations and on the location of the productive wells. Details of the development from 1922 through 1924 of the oilfield were recorded and extensively mapped by U.S. Navy Lt. Commander C.A. Trexel (1930) in “Compilation of Data on Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 3 (Teapot Dome) Natrona County Wyoming.” A series of drawings (maps as figures) from Strauss and Watts, receivers dated April 24, 1924, and from Trexel 1930, is included at the end of the Written Historical and Descriptive Data Section, as listed below: • Figure 2: “Receivers’ Map of Teapot Dome Oilfield” (See Page 22). TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD HAER No. WY-100 (Page 4) • Figure 3: “Location of Camps” (See Page 23). • Figure 4: “Roads and Bridges” (See Page 24). • Figure 5: “Telephone System” (See Page 25). • Figure 6: “Derricks” (See Page 26). • Figure 7: “Gas Distribution System” (See Page 27). • Figure 8: “Oil Gathering System” (See Page 28). • Figure 9: “Sinclair Equipment” (See Page 29). • Figure 10: “Gas Collection System” (See Page 30). 5. Alterations and additions: The primary Teapot Dome Oilfield development was from May 1922 through March 1924, while the oilfield was under the control of Mammoth Oil Company. During that time, eight residence/operation camps were established, telephone and water lines were installed, roads and bridges were constructed, and natural gas and oil wells, tanks, and pipelines were installed throughout the oilfield. On March 13, 1924, federal court appointed receivers took control of the oilfield and stopped most drilling operations, but maintained production from existing wells. Drilling rigs were moved into storage at Casper and a considerable number of employees were dismissed (Darnell 1953:6-8). At the time the receivers took over operations, eighty-two wells had been spudded in, and sixty wells were producing oil, gas, or water (see Operations). Because two new wells were being drilled adjacent to the Teapot Dome Oilfield, the court authorized the receivers to drill two new off-set wells to prevent drainage from the oilfield into the production zone of the outside wells. These new wells were completed in July 1924, and produced a limited amount of oil, approximately thirty- eight barrels per day (Trexel 1930:158). In addition, the court authorized the receivers to sell excess casinghead natural gas and gasoline, and in 1925 a natural gas collection system, gasoline condensing gear, and compression plant were installed, and excess gas was being sold by October 1925 via a connection with an existing pipeline to Casper and Midwest (Trexel 1930:160-161). Following the close-down of operations under the court appointed receivers: forty-three wells of the eighty-four wells at the Teapot Dome Oilfield were producing oil (thirty in the second wall, one in the third wall, and twelve in shale; see Historic Context below for formation and well depths). Six wells were producing natural gas. The other thirty-five wells had been plugged and abandoned, mudded, or shut down (Trexel 1930:174). After the October 1927 Supreme Court decision voiding the original Mammoth Oil Company lease, the receivers shut down operations of the Teapot Dome Oilfield on December 31, 1927, and submitted a final report to the courts on January 7, 1928 (Trexel 1930:167). In 1928, Mammoth Oil Company Camps 1, 2, and 3, and the Sinclair Camp were boarded up and fences were erected around each area (Trexel 1930:175). During the course of closing down operations, the Navy approved the sale of the Sinclair Pump Station and Pipeline within the Reserve, a number of derricks, about half of the steel field tanks, the wood water tanks, and pipelines of the oil gathering system (Trexel 1930:175). Six lots TEAPOT DOME OILFIELD HAER No. WY-100 (Page 5) of material were identified for sale, and sale awards were issued on September 18, 1928, as follows: • Lot 1 – 10 standard 82’ wooden derricks, sold to American Iron & Metal Co. • Lot 2 – Sinclair Pump Station; not sold, no reasonable offer was received. • Lot 3 – Sinclair pipeline on the Reserve (approximately 85,000’ of 8 ¼ casing and telephone line), sold to Ohio Oil Co.