The mysterious vaults of U.S. Fort Knox

The story so far: For over a week now, the catchphrase ‘Fort Knox’ has been stealing the spotlight online, to be more specific, in the U.S. Several conspiracy theories started floating around it and even U.S. President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is also the head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, spoke about it in public. On February 20, 2025, President Trump, at the Republican Governors association meeting, said, “We’re going to inspect Fort Knox.”

So what is Fort Knox?

Fort Knox, a metonym for gold, is the U.S. Bullion Depository that sits on 1,09,000 acres of land, in Kentucky. It’s not a production facility but it stores bullion reserves of the United States in its fortified safety vaults.

How much gold does Fort Knox hold?

It was in 1937 that Fort Knox got its first gold shipment from Philadelphia Mint and New York Assay Office. On December 31, 1941, the Depository had its historic gold holdings at 649.6 million ounces. Except for the small portion for purity-testing purposes, no gold has changed hands to or from the Depository for several years. Currently, Fort Knox has in its vaults 147.3 million ounces of gold, which is nearly half of the Treasury’s stored gold, and valuables of other federal agencies.

Why so much fuss around Fort Knox now?

On February 16, 2025, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones tweeted saying the U.S. government claims it has nearly 5,000 tonnes of gold but Fort Knox has not been audited since 1974. The tweet opened the floodgates of conspiracies revolving it after Elon Musk replied him, “It would be cool to do a live video walkthrough of Fort Knox.” Further, he tweeted, “Who is confirming that gold wasn’t stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it’s there, maybe it’s not.”

Can anyone visit Fort Knox?

No one is allowed to visit Fort Knox, unlike how banks allow its customers to keep/take jewels, gold, silver or documents in/from its lockers, on a regular basis. In fact, U.S. Senator Mike Lee tweeted that he has been repeatedly trying to enter Fort Knox and that the Depository has replied him in negation. In fact, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the only one who visited the Depository other than the authorised personnel, in 1943.

When was the last visit made to Fort Knox?

One of Kentucky’s U.S. Senators Rand Paul wrote a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent saying, “Prior to a visit by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and others in 2017, forty-two years had elapsed since a civilian was allowed to enter and view the gold vault.”

In his letter, Mr. Paul has requested an audit of the United States Mint’s holdings, including testing of the gold. He has also asked for in-person inspection of the entire Depository and other holdings by him and his staff.

Is Fort Knox audited regularly?

In an exclusive interview with talk show host Dan O’Donnell, Scott Bessent said, “We do an audit every year and [as per] the audit that ended on September 30, 2024, all the gold is present and accounted for.”

How is an audit performed?

As per a statement in United States Mint website dated September 20, 1974: A committee of auditors from the Treasury Department and the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) will perform the audit. Auditors will be from the Office of the Secretary, the Bureau of Government Financial Operations, the U.S. Customs Service, and the Bureau of the Mint. Further, the auditing committee also comprises technicians belonging to Bureau of the Mint. These technicians were trained in assaying and weighing gold bullion.