Fort Knox Gold Reserve Audit
vault mystery OPEN fame 3/5
The United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, is reported to hold roughly 147 million ounces of gold. Its location and holdings are officially known, but the vault is essentially never opened to outside inspection, and the absence of a full independent audit sustains a persistent "is the gold really there?" mystery — a vault/verification case, not a lost-location one.
Scorecard
- -1.00 · class_prior
- +0.71 · The US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox opened in 1937 and, per Treasury and US…
- +0.11 · The vault is closed to the public and outside visits are extraordinarily rare; a…
- +3.00 · technique_term
- +0.11 · The vault is closed to the public and outside visits are extraordinarily rare; a…
- -0.09 · The lack of a comprehensive, independently-verified public audit of the holdings…
- +3.00 · technique_term
- +0.11 · The vault is closed to the public and outside visits are extraordinarily rare; a…
- -0.09 · The lack of a comprehensive, independently-verified public audit of the holdings…
Location hypotheses
No location hypothesis has been recorded for this treasure, so there is nothing to plot — and this tool never fabricates a map or a dig site. Per the scoring gates, an absence of location data caps Findable now at band 2 (LONG-SHOT).
What would it take?
No emerging or speculative technique changes the picture yet — the frontier findability band (LONG-SHOT) equals the current band. A breakthrough here would need a genuinely new capability, not just a maturing one.
Evidence ledger (3 verified facts)
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The US Bullion Depository at Fort Knox opened in 1937 and, per Treasury and US Mint figures, holds about 147.3 million troy ounces of gold — roughly half the Treasury's gold reserve.known by 1937-06-01 · diagnosticity high · confidence 0.95↳ Wikipedia: United States Bullion Depository journalistic
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The lack of a comprehensive, independently-verified public audit of the holdings is what sustains the mystery: the puzzle here is verification and access, not physical location — the defining trait of the vault class.known by 2015-01-01 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.70↳ Wikipedia: United States Bullion Depository journalistic
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The vault is closed to the public and outside visits are extraordinarily rare; a widely-reported 1974 visit by members of Congress and press, and a 2017 visit by the Treasury Secretary, are among the very few outside views.known by 2017-08-22 · diagnosticity medium · confidence 0.90↳ Wikipedia: United States Bullion Depository journalistic
Technique matrix
| Technique | Family | Maturity | Applicability | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archival & primary-source research | archival | available | 3/3 | Treasury ledgers, audit reports, and FOIA releases are the entire evidentiary surface. |
| Metallurgical & isotopic assay | ground truthing | available | 2/3 | A real audit would assay sampled bars to verify fineness and content. |