The name of a scandal in American politics of the 1920s; it was also the name of a petroleum reserve in Wyoming, under the control of the United States Government, as part of the nation's oil reserves. President Warren G. Harding signed over control of Teapot Dome (and other such locations) to Interior Secretary Albert Fall, who, in turn, sold the rights to tap into those reserves to oil companies; the proceeds went into the pockets of Fall and others, not the U.S. Treasury.