Stuff You Should Know✓Claim

Key Takeaways 

• In the 1930s, the US Treasury took partial possession of Fort Knox so that it could store its gold there
• Before Fort Knox, most of the United States’ gold was stored in New York City and Philadelphia, two cities that were close to the coast and potentially more vulnerable to an invasion from an adversary 
• Supposedly, there are 4600 metric tons of gold in the vault at Fort Knox; this equates to 2.5% of all the gold ever mined in human history  
• Some people believe that there is actually no gold in the vault 
• There have only been three official tours of Fort Knox since its founding
• Fort Knox is hooked up to its own water and power supply; it can go “off-grid”
• There is speculation that the field surrounding Fort Knox is a minefield

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

When Fort Knox was built in the 1930s to house America’s gold supply, it was billed as an impenetrable, impregnable, don’t-even-think-of-trying vault. But as the world has moved further away from gold, the stockpile’s lost a bit of its luster. Learn all about it in this classic episode.

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