How Much Gold Is In Fort Knox?

As there has never been an approved full audit of the contents of Fort Knox, the exact contents cannot be verified. However, as of October 31,2014 according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s “Status Report of U.S. Treasury-Owned Gold” there are 258,641,878.074 million troy ounces of gold.

If the U.S. Treasury’s accounting is correct and with today’s spot price of gold hovering around $1,200 dollars per troy ounce, the rough amount of gold in Fort Knox is:

310 Billion Dollars

In 1937, the United States Bullion Depository was created at the Fort Knox U.S. Army Garrison in Kentucky to keep up with the country’s increasing gold reserves. With the enactment of the Gold Reserve Act of 1933 where the government made it illegal to own gold and demanded it all turned in, the United States had an influx of gold bullion. Along with the rise of Hitler and the beginnings of World War II in the 1930’s, the United States sought to build a new facility to store it’s vast gold holdings. Fort Knox Kentucky was a prime candidate as it was 1,000 miles from the coast, on the other side of the Appalachian Mountains and right in the heart of the Army’s headquarters.

Because the vaults are held underground away from prying eyes, many rumors exist as to the actual presence of the gold. In the 1970’s a rumor spread that there actually was no gold in Fort Knox. The rumor and conspiracy theory reached such proportions that an “inspection” was held to quell the public’s fears. The Director of the United States Mint guided a group of congressmen and journalists to tour the vaults of Fort Knox. They were shown only one room, but that room did contain 8-foot-tall stacks of 36,236 bars of gold. Each bar weighs 400 troy ounces.

Along with the country’s gold, Fort Knox has also safeguarded the Declaration of Independence, President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and the Magna Carta.