The daily sentinel., 1906-08-28
OLD PRospECToR POISONED.
Il. l.. Hunt, Old Time Mining Man l.
Victim of Unseen Foe, Poison -
Put in His Water Bottle.
Narrowly Escapes
Death

No enemy is more fearful or no
4 foe more cowardly or dangerous than
one who would do murder by the
means of administering to some un-
suspecting man deadly poison.
thereby giving him no chance to de-
fend himself. The victim of such an
enemy Robert l.. Hunt, an old pros
peetor and mining man of this sec
ton. and well known TO many of the
mining men of this city, believes
himself to be, and the story he tells
bears him out in his belief.
For the past ten years. Mr.. Hunt
has operated in Grand county, Utah.
in the LaSals and other mining dist
tricts. For several years he has work
ed at developing some valuable prop
erty he owns in the La Sal country
located about 25 miles from Thomp-
son springs, Utah. Mining men have
examined the property and state that
1t is rich in copper and silver. The
property is located near the Wolfe
ranch on the Big Wash. The greater
part of the time Mr.. Hunt has work
ed this property without assistance.
During the summer he has had his
camp at the Wolfe ranch near his
property.
Two weeks ago today Mr.. Hunt de
cided to make a trip to Thompson and
COME from lnnl lOWu 10 NrTdnu juno
tion on a business trip. That night
he secured n beer bottle at the ranch
washed 1t out well and prepared it
for use as a water bottle. He went
down to big spring near his tent
and secured two buckets of fresh
water, leaving the bottle standing
full of water in his tent. He emptied
the bottle on his return and refilled it
then left it for the night. He slept
soundly all night. The next morning
he closed up his camp, again emptied
his water bottle and refilled it from
one of the buckets, prepared break
fast using water to make coffee from
one of the buckets. He started on
foot for Thompson, "a miles away.
When within about eight miles of
| Thompson Mr.. Hunt became thirsty
and took a big drink from the beer
hottie. His thirst was not quenched
but on the other hand the desire for
water became greater than ever His
tongue seemed to dry out and parch.
Not suspecting anything Mr.. Hunt
took his seat under a cedar tree and
drank all the rest of the water in the
bottle. He was Immediately seized
with cramps and realized then that
the water had been poisoned. There
was no habitation for several miles
and suffering terribly, having one
spasm after another. he managed to
reach Thompson Springs. He was in
a frightful condition when he arriv-
ed there under the care of Tom May,
a sheep herder for Ballard Brothers.
who met him just out of town. His
limbs were twitching fearfully and
he was raving for water. 1t so hap
pened that a physician from Fruita
was in Thompson that day to see a
| patient and this doctor was summon
ed. He worked with Mr.. Hunt for
several hours. finally relieving him
to a large extent. He stated that he
| had every symptom of strychnine
poisoning and declared that If Mr..
Hunt had laid down and not tried to
proceed to Thompson he would have
died, or had he been able to secure all
the water he wanted Immediately
after realizing that he had been pois-
oned he would have died.
Mr.. Hunt was i'll for several days
but finally got able to proceed to
Grand Junction. He says that the
agony he suffered during the hours
| Intervening from the time he drank
the poisoned water till he reached
Thompson cannot be described.
Mr.. Hunt says that he believes that
some one bent upon taking his life
entered his tent that night as he
slept and placed poison in the beer
bottle. He says that repeated efforts
have been made by certain parties to
secure his properties and he believes
that men desirous of getting hold of
his mines were behind this attempt
to murder him.
About eighteen months ago Mr..
Hunt says that a man appeared at
the Wolfe ranch and acted very sus-
\ piciously keeping close around Mr..
| Hunts camp near his mine He was
offered work as a sheep herder but
refused it. Hunt saw that the man
was watching him and learned
through hands on the ranch that the
| fellow had laid near his camp all one
day watching the camp closely. Mr..
Hunt became suspicious and that
evening he threw out some pork and
beans that had been cooking over the
camp fire fearing that they had been
molested. The next morning some
rats and chipmonks. that had eaten
of these beans and pork were found
dead around or near the food In
vestigation proved that they had died
| from poisoning as a result of eating
some of the cooked food. The pork
and beans had been poisoned The
mysterious sheep herder disappeared
| that night and was seen no more.
Had Hunt partaken of the pork and
4 beans for his evening meal he would
have been dead.
Mr.. Hunt returned yesterday from
a trip with some local parties to the
Book Cliffs to investigate some gill
sonite properties. He leaves this
week for his property in Utah, deear-
| ing that his enemies cannot scare him
away. He says that he believes that
when the time is ripe he can lay his
hands on the men whom he believes
are back of tn efforts being made
to kill him. "They are the kind that
don't want to shoot me down as that
would lead to Investigations. They
want me to go by the poison route be-
lieving that If l am found dead some
day without any signs of violence on
my person there would be no inves-
legations. it would just be sudden
death from heart failure"
Mr.. Hunt is a man of excellent
standing and widely acquainted in
many circles.
He does not seem greatly worried
over the nemesis following him.