Teapot Dome Scandal, Sinclair Oil, and related company records

The Teapot Dome Scandal was an oil and gas political scandal in the 1920s involving Mammoth Oil Company, PanAmerican Petroleum and Transport Company, and the Warren G. Harding administration. The Secretary of the Interior, Albert Bacon Fall, accepted bribes from Harry F. Sinclair, the owner of Mammoth, and Edward L. Doheny, the owner of PanAmerican, in exchange for leasing them the right to drill for oil on Naval Petroleum Reserves.

The Senate Committee on Public Lands investigated the deal and eventually Albert Bacon Fall was convicted of accepting the bribes. However, Harry F. Sinclair and Edward L. Doheny were acquitted of their roles in giving the bribes. During his trial, Harry F. Sinclair hired the Burns Detective agency to shadow the jurors and was sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of Congress for jury tampering.

After making a fortune investing in various oil drilling projects in the early 1900s, Harry F. Sinclair founded the Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation in 1916. Subsidiaries were created to manage different aspects of the operation and these included Sinclair Oil and Gas Company, Sinclair-Cudahy Pipe Line Company, Sinclair Refining Company, Sinclair Crude Oil Purchasing Company, and Exchange Oil Company, all incorporated in 1916. In 1918, the War Pipe Line Company was incorporated, followed by Sinclair Coal Company and Sinclair Building Company in 1919.

Additionally, Sinclair Gulf Corporation was created in 1917 to oversee operations in Mexico and Central America. Sinclair purchased corporations already working in this area such as Freeport and Tampico Fuel Oil Corporation and Costa Rica Oil Corporation, and also created new subsidiaries including Sinclair Gulf Oil Company, Sinclair Gulf Pipe Line Company, Sinclair Gulf Refining Company, Sinclair Cuba Oil Company, Mexican Sinclair Petroleum Company, Sinclair Navigation Company, Sinclair Central American Oil Corporation, and Sinclair Panama Oil Corporation.

In 1919, Sinclair Oil and Refining Corporation and Sinclair Gulf Corporation were restructured and became Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation. Also in 1919, Sinclair Oil Company of Louisiana was incorporated and Union Petroleum Company was acquired.

In 1920, the Sinclair-Cudahy Pipe Line Company was renamed the Sinclair Pipe Line Company and the Sinclair Texas Pipe Line Company was also incorporated.

In 1922, Sinclair founded Mammoth Oil Company for the purpose of developing the Teapot Dome oil field in Wyoming, the site of Naval Oil Reserve No. 3.

In 1930, Sinclair acquired the Pierce Petroleum Corporation (previously the Waters-Pierce Oil Company and the Pierce-Fordyce Oil Association).

In 1932, Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corporation was renamed Consolidated Oil Corporation. At this time, the Consolidated Oil Corporation also acquired Prairie Oil and Gas Corporation, Prairie Pipe Line Company, the Rio Grande Oil Company, and the Penn-Mex Fuel Company.

In 1934, Consolidated Oil Corporation acquired Producers and Refiners Corporation (Parco) which they had previously gained a controlling stake when they had purchased Prairie Oil and Gas.

In 1935 or 1936, Consolidated Oil Corporation purchased Richfield Oil Company's East Coast operations.

In 1943, Consolidated Oil Corporation was renamed Sinclair Oil Corporation.

In 1969, Sinclair Oil Corporation merged with the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) which had originally formed in 1966 when Richfield Oil Company merged with Atlantic Refining. The resulting corporation divested itself some Sinclair assets and of the name Sinclair Oil Corporation while keeping the name Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). This resulted in Sinclair eventually being revived as an independent company.

In the 1970s, ARCO played a large role in building the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (also called the Alyeska Pipeline).