NEVER OUT OF GAS
Visions of untold riches filled Octavius Decatur “O.D.” Gass’ head as he sank his pick deep into the craggy goldfields of El Dorado Canyon in the Colorado Mining District. Dreams of finding his own “El Dorado” had drawn the Ohio emigrant (born Feb. 29, 1827, in Richland County) to this remote stretch of what was then far western Arizona Territory in 1862. But Gass’ adventures—and misadventures—out West began long before his arrival in El Dorado Canyon.
On news of the California Gold Rush, Gass bought passage on a ship sailing from Baltimore around Cape Horn to San Francisco, where he arrived in January 1850. After earning a grubstake
