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Teapot Dome Gas Station

Status: Saved!

Year Listed: 2007

Location: Yakima County

In 1922, illegal oil leases in Wyoming and Elk Hills, California resulted in the indictment of the Secretary of the Interior and left President Warren Harding’s administration tarnished by scandal.  The scandal in turn prompted a Yakima County man, Jack Ainsworth, to handcraft a piece of roadside political commentary that remains standing today along Interstate 82 near Zillah.  Fashioned after a teapot, the shingled kettle features a sheet metal handle and spout and served as a gas station for many decades since opening in 1922