<P> Near the beginning of the Great Depression, Sinclair sold the remaining interest in its pipeline subsidiary to Standard Oil Company (Indiana) for US $72.5 million (Standard Oil had purchased a 50% interest in the pipeline subsidiary in 1921). With these funds, including an additional US $33.5 million from an additional common stock issue, Sinclair retired a number of promissory notes and prepared to weather the Depression with the remaining supply of cash . </P> <P> Between 1921 and 1922, Sinclair leased oil production rights to Teapot Dome in Wyoming without competitive bidding . This led to the Teapot Dome scandal . </P> <P> During the Great Depression, Sinclair saved a number of other petroleum companies from receivership or bankruptcy, and acquired others to expand its operations . In 1932, Sinclair purchased the assets of Prairie Oil and Gas's pipeline and producing companies in the southern United States, and the Rio Grande Oil Company in California . The purchase of Prairie also gave Sinclair a 65% interest in Producers and Refiners Corporation (or Parco), which Sinclair subsequently acquired when Parco entered receivership in 1934 . Lastly, in 1936, Sinclair purchased the East Coast marketing subsidiary of Richfield Oil Company, which had operated in receivership for several years . Richfield then reorganized, resulting in the creation of the Richfield Oil Corporation . Sinclair was instrumental in transferring capital and managerial assets into Richfield . Thirty years later, Richfield merged with Atlantic Refining, located on the East Coast, forming Atlantic Richfield . </P> <P> At the Chicago World's Fair of 1933--1934, Sinclair sponsored a dinosaur exhibit meant to point out the putative correlation between the formation of petroleum deposits and the time of dinosaurs, now a largely discredited misconception . The exhibit included a two - ton animated model of a brontosaurus . The exhibit proved so popular it inspired a promotional line of rubber brontosaurs at Sinclair stations, complete with wiggling heads and tails, and the eventual inclusion of the brontosaur logo . Later, inflatable dinosaurs were given as promotional items, and an anthropomorphic version appeared as a service - station attendant in advertisements . Some locations have a life - size model of the mascot straddling the building's entrance . </P>

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