What to know about Fort Knox's gold depository
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — President Donald Trump says Elon Musk will be looking at Fort Knox, the legendary depository in Kentucky for American gold reserves, to make sure the gold is still there.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says there is an audit every year and that “all the gold is present and accounted for.”
The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox has stored precious metal bullion reserves for the United States since 1937 and has become synonymous for secure and well protected. Along with protecting gold reserves, Fort Knox is currently also used as the Army's human resources command center, and it hosts the Army's largest annual training event each summer.
“We’re going to open up the the doors. We’re going to inspect Fort Knox,” Trump said in a speech to Republican governors Thursday evening.
“I don’t want to open it and the cupboards are bare,” he added.
The Army post is about 35 miles south of Louisville and encompasses 109,000 acres in three Kentucky counties — Bullitt, Hardin, and Mead.
Camp Knox was established during World War I and became an artillery training center, according to the Army post's website. It was made a permanent installation in 1932 and has been known since then as Fort Knox. The first gold arrived at Fort Knox in 1937 with the 1st Cavalry Regiment called on to guard the shipment.
With the outbreak of World War II in Europe, the Army created the Armored Force at Fort Knox, and thousands of soldiers were ordered there and introduced to the tank. For nearly 80 years, the post was known as the “Home of Cavalry and Armor.”
In 2005, the Army decided to move the Armor Center and School to Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Human Resource Command Center of Excellence was established at Fort Knox. In 2013, ROTC Cadet Summer Training was consolidated at Fort Knox. The post hosts the Army's largest annual training event each summer.
According to the U.S. Mint, current gold holdings at the US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox are 147.3 million ounces. About half of the Treasury’s stored gold is kept at Fort Knox.
Has the gold ever been removed? The Mint says only very small quantities have been removed to test the purity of the gold during regularly scheduled audits. Except for these samples, no gold has been transferred to or from the depository for many years. The gold's book value is $42.22 per ounce.
The depository is very secure. The actual structure and content of the facility is known by only a few, and no one person knows all the procedures to open the vault.
What is known publicly is that the facility was built in 1936 using 16,000 cubic feet of granite, 4,200 cubic yards of concrete, 750 tons of reinforcing steel and 670 tons of structural steel. The facility is heavily guarded and has broken its strict policy of not allowing visitors only three times.
In 1974, the US Mint opened the vaults to a group of journalists and a congressional delegation so they could see the gold reserves. The Treasury secretary allowed the visit after persistent rumors that the gold had been removed. Until then, the only person other than authorized personnel to access the vaults was President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Since then, the vaults have been opened one other time: In 2017, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visited with Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and congressional representatives. Current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he would happily arrange an inspection for any senator who is interested in seeing the vaults.
The gold depository at Fort Knox has a reputation for being impenetrable, which has gained it a place in popular culture. As early as 1952, a Looney Tunes cartoon featured Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam digging for gold Fort Knox. Fort Knox has also been featured in the plot of movies such as the 1964 James Bond spy thriller “Goldfinger” and the 1981 comedy “Stripes,” which was partially filmed at the post.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.
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