Structure Type: built works - infrastructure - transportation structures

Designers: [unspecified]

Dates: [unspecified]

Washington State Highway 82
Zillah, WA

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A Zillah resident, Jack Ainsworth, built this teapot-shaped gas station referring to a contemporary political scandal involving President Warren G. Harding's Secretary of the Interior, Albert B. Fall. Fall provided oil to be pumped from public lands to by his friends, the oilmen, Harry Sinclair and Edward Doheny, in exchange for personal gifts totalling $404,000. The oil fields at Elk Hills, CA, Buena Vista Hills, CA, and Teapot Dome, WY, were kept in reserve for the U.S. Navy, in case normal commercial supplies were cut. After a scandal that stretched over several years, Fall was the first Cabinet officer sentenced to jail time, one year for accepting bribes.

As of 2006, this small roadside "duck" was imperiled due to potential development on its site. The City of Zillah mobilized to purchase the beloved highway gas station and move it to a new location in town.

PCAD id: 10929