When Carolyn Gose Foster went to open her family’s storage unit in Powell, she could tell something was wrong. When she finally managed to get it open, the object she was most worried about was gone.
It wasn’t jewelry or furniture. It was a massive, 60-million-year-old petrified log from the ranch her family homesteaded in eastern Wyoming.
“That was such a blow to the gut for me,” Foster told Cowboy State Daily. “My dad was always afraid someone would steal it, and we told him no one could ever steal it. We never laughed at my dad, except about that.”
Foster isn’t concerned about the monetary value of the petrified log. She just wants her family heirloom back.
“It’s a matter of heart,” she said. “It connects me to my father, my family, and the ranch we homesteaded. I was floored.”
A large piece of petrified wood stolen from a storage unit in Powell. Carolyn Gose Foster, who inherited the fossil from her late father, isn't sure when or why it was stolen, but hopes it can be recovered and returned to her family. 
The Gose Family ranch in eastern Wyoming. While the ranch is no longer within the family, Carolyn Gose Foster said the petrified wood and other items stolen from the family's storage in Powell were important "touchstones" of the family's history with the land they homesteaded. 
A large piece of petrified wood stolen from a storage unit in Powell. Carolyn Gose Foster, who inherited the fossil from her late father, isn't sure when or why it was stolen, but hopes it can be recovered and returned to her family.
Petrified Wood Purloined
The petrified log was in one of two storage units rented by Foster’s parents at Branch Line Storage in Powell. They used to have five units, but the other three and all of their contents were lost in a fire in 2020.
Foster, who lives outside Denver, Colorado, swung up to Powell to look in on the units when she was in the Bighorn Basin for work this week. She immediately sensed something was amiss when she approached.
“When I drove up to work on my parents' storage, and I couldn't get the door open,” she said. “It had been pushed off the side rails on both sides, so it was jammed.”
That’s when she noticed “a shiny new lock” on the door that she’d never seen before. Strangely, the new lock had the same combination as the old one.
When she managed to open the unit, her worst fear was realized. Her father’s petrified log was gone, and someone had gone through a lot of effort to get it.
“You could see the scour marks on the concrete floor,” she said. “They didn’t just mark it. They put grooves in the concrete.”
Foster assumes whoever stole the log must have used a winch to remove it from the unit. It’s the only way her father could move it.
“It was impossible to move by hand, no matter how many people,” she said. “It was too heavy and dense. They had to have used a winch or heavy lifting equipment.”
The log wasn’t the only object stolen from the unit.
According to Foster, the other items missing include an antique double-handed copper boiler, filled with pieces of petrified wood and agate, a cream can, and a set of deer antlers.
Naturally, Foster hopes to recover everything, but nothing matters more than that heavy piece of petrified wood.
“I never thought anyone would steal it,” she said.
Eyes On The Skies
Robert Oren Gose was a Wyomingite with an exceptionally accomplished career.
He was born on the Gose family ranch, which straddled Crook and Weston counties, in 1921.
He joined the U.S. Air Force during World War II, serving as a B-24 bomber pilot and lead combat pilot in the Eighth Air Force — known as the “Mighty Eighth” — through the end of the war.
He went on to be a flight instructor and test pilot during the Korean War.
After earning a Master of Science degree in jet propulsion engineering from the California Institute of Technology, Gose worked for several aerospace and energy companies.
He helped develop the MINUTEMAN I, II, and III ICBM weapon systems and collaborated with NASA as the agency prepared for and eventually launched the Apollo missions.
“He credited the one-room schoolhouse on the ranch, with only his siblings as classmates, as being what got him started and made it possible for him to achieve so much,” Foster said.
After retiring from aerospace, Gose served as joint chair and CEO of the Wyoming Business Council. Even after he moved out of Wyoming, he remained highly respected in the Cowboy State.
“He was honored by the commander of the 20th Air Force in Cheyenne about 10 years ago,” Foster said. “He loved propulsion, working cattle, and being part of the fabric of Wyoming.”
Gose loved the historic homestead where he grew up, which was first settled by his ancestors. He worked as much and as often as he could while pursuing his career.
Selling the ranch in his twilight years “broke his heart,” according to Foster.
“He hated selling the last part of the ranch, but he was in his late 90s and wasn’t in the physical shape to run it anymore,” she said.
Gose died in Littleton, Colorado, on Sept. 15, 2020. He was 98 years old.
“He was an amazing man,” Foster said.
Robert Oren Gose lifting his piece of petrified wood for transport to a new location. Gose was extremely attached to the massive fossil, since he found it on his family's historic ranch, and kept it with him until he died in 2020. 
Robert Oren Gose lifting his piece of petrified wood for transport to a new location. Gose was extremely attached to the massive fossil, since he found it on his family's historic ranch, and kept it with him until he died in 2020. A large piece of petrified wood stolen from a storage unit in Powell. Carolyn Gose Foster, who inherited the fossil from her late father, isn't sure when or why it was stolen, but hopes it can be recovered and returned to her family.
Artifact, Heirloom, Touchstone
Foster said her father found the massive chunk of petrified wood on the family ranch decades ago. It was probably from the trunk of a 60-million-year-old metasequoia, as fossilized forests of these prehistoric redwoods are scattered throughout northern Wyoming.
“It was very dense and beautiful, and he really valued it,” she said. “Wherever my parents moved, he always moved with them.”
Gose and his wife, Vivienne, lived in Powell for a time. The log ended up in one of their storage units, and Foster oversaw it when her parents decided to move out of state.
Foster was devastated to see that it had been stolen in what, she assumes, was a targeted theft.
“Someone knew exactly where it was,” she said. “I checked with the owner and the manager, and they said that there had never been thefts there. I made a report with the Park County Sheriff’s Office, and nothing’s come of it.”
Foster has shared images of the petrified log in the hopes someone will let her know if they’ve seen it. She said it was stolen within the last year, since that’s how much time had elapsed since her visits to the storage units in Powell.
Foster isn’t interested in the scientific or monetary value of the lost log. For her, it’s a sentimental “touchstone” to her family and their history, both the good times and the bad.
“My brother, Robert, died on our ranch when he was 19 and I was 17,” she said. “We were very close, and I never got to say goodbye. That’s why I cherished that thing. It was my connection to my late parents, my brother, and our ranch. It was my touchstone.”
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
