AMUSEMENTS: 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...

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