Teapot Dome River Rush

Features

This intense whitewater raft ride takes its passengers through the mountains of Casper, Wyoming and up the Teapot Rock formation, that the Teapot Dome Scandal was famously named after. Throughout the ride keep an eye out for big oil companies sneaking around trying to secretly drill oil. Once you make it to the top you only have a couple seconds before you plummet down a 45 foot waterfall. The ride takes about 10 minutes and can carry up to 18 people.

History

The Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s involved national security, big oil companies and bribery and corruption at the highest levels of the government of the United States. This controversy was named for an oil reserve near a rock formation north of Casper, Wyoming, that looked just like a teapot. The events that led to scandal began decades before the actual scandal, when the government realized they needed a better fuel source than coal. The Navy asked Congress to set aside federal oil reserves, which many big oil companies wanted the chance to drill on the land.

After President Warren G. Harding transferred supervision of the naval oil-reserve lands from the navy to the Department of the Interior in 1921, secretary Albert Bacon Fall made secret deals with two prominent oilmen, Edward Doheny and Harry Sinclair. Both men, close friends of Fall, paid him bribes to authorize them to drill in the three naval petroleum reserves. When the secret deals became known Fall was sent to federal prison and the two oil businessmen faced minor sentences. The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s can be compared to political scandals currently occurring in the United States regarding the presidency.