Record-Breaking Rockhog

In the fabulous Telluride-Ouray-Silverton mining district of Colorado's San Juan mountains, the world's fastest tunnel builder was hard a-boring once more last week. The man: 6-ft.-8-in. John Raymond Austin, 56, whose straggly grey hair and long, lined face give him the melancholy look of a bloodhound. The job: adding 6,200 ft. to an abandoned tunnel under La Plata divide, to make it possible to get zinc, lead and copper out of some lately unworked gold & silver mines.

Passion for Tunnels. Stoop-shouldered Long John Austin spent three years at the University of North Carolina's engineering school before skipping off to a Pittsburgh construction job. Within a year he was marked by his passion for tunnels. He built tunnels for railroads in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, then went to Canada as concrete boss of the famous $130,000,000 Welland Canal. There he acquired more know-how, and a small, vivacious wife named Helen Daniels.

In 1935, Long John built California's Palms Tunnel No. 1, the Denver water district Jones Pass tunnel. Then he tackled the tough, six-mile Cripple Creek Carlton tunnel. On that job he flabbergasted veteran construction engineers by holing through in two years (the best estimated time was four to eight). This put Long John in the rockhog hall of fame. Two years ago he started the western end of the Alva Adams tunnel, a 13-mile tube 13,000 ft. beneath the crest of the Rockies. The Adams tunnel Government project intended to carry enough water from Grand Lake to Estes Park to irrigate 615,000 acres of Colorado sugar beets and to supply 900,000,000 k.w.h. of electricity. War stopped the work.

Last month RFC lent $1,300,000 to Metals Reserve Corp. to drill the rest of a tunnel to connect up the Barstow mine (once owned by Harry Payne Whitney), the Black Bear (once Rockefeller's) and adjacent mines. All these properties are now owned by Idarado Corp. and have been leased to Metals Reserve on a royalty basis. In addition to lead and copper, the Government especially hopes to get 5,600 tons of zinc the first year. Long John's tunneling tempo was needed again.

Tempo, Timetable. Long John's speed and success come from his habit of planning everything to a split minute. His "muck trains" tote out debris on a rail road timetable basis; his sweating rockhogs know exactly how far they must bore. (Long John expects to get through in four months.) To help his men Long John several years ago designed and built a huge, seven-ton drill carriage which uses six bits instead of four. Added incentives are high wages and bonuses, three-shift operations. Most effective of all, Long John is the kind his men understand. He can drink them under the bar on nights off, is uproarious with barroom jokes.

For all this Long John has plenty to show. His salary -- salary-from Stiers Bros. Construction Co. of St. Louis -- tops $36,000 a year, four to six times the pay of most tunnel superintendents. He also has a collection of hats--all won by breaking records. When he won his last bet, an opera hat, he blurted: "What the hell does anyone my height do with a high silk hat?"

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.