Qualla: Milford Mine https://qualla.com/milford-mine en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:05 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Milford Mine https://qualla.com/milford-mine Milford Mine: Introduction https://qualla.com/milford-mine/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. On the morning of February 5, 1924, forty-eight men descended into the Milford Mine in Crow Wing County, Minnesota. By afternoon, only seven would climb back out. A wall of mud and water from nearby Foley Lake had burst through the easternmost tunnel, flooding the shaft to within fifteen or twenty feet of the surface in less than twenty minutes. Forty-one miners drowned in what remains the deadliest mining disaster in Minnesota history. The mine sits on the Cuyuna Range, a stretch of iron country that had been producing ore rich in manganese since 1917. The Milford Mine was supposed to be another source of prosperity. Instead, it became a grave.

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Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/cbm0-milford-mine-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Milford Mine: Manganese and the Making of Steel https://qualla.com/milford-mine/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. First mined for iron ore in 1917, the Milford Mine operated under owner George H. Crosby in Wolford Township. By 1924 the mine had reached considerable depths, and 70,000 tons of ore were extracted and shipped that year alone. The Cuyuna Range's ore was prized not just for iron b...

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Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/cbm0-milford-mine-manganese-and-the-making-of-steel.mp3 0:06 2 full Milford Mine: Twenty Minutes of Mud https://qualla.com/milford-mine/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. The disaster struck when a surface cave-in at the mine's easternmost end broke through to mud that connected directly to Foley Lake. Water and debris surged into the tunnels with devastating speed. The shaft flooded in less than twenty minutes. Seven men near the surface managed ...

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Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/cbm0-milford-mine-twenty-minutes-of-mud.mp3 0:06 3 full Milford Mine: Nine Months of Recovery https://qualla.com/milford-mine/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. Recovering the bodies was agonizing work. The mine was filled with mud and debris, and rescue teams worked in constant fear of further cave-ins. The effort stretched from February through the rest of the year. The last body was not removed until November 9, 1924, nine months afte...

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Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/cbm0-milford-mine-nine-months-of-recovery.mp3 0:06 4 full Milford Mine: Silence, Then Remembrance https://qualla.com/milford-mine/ Photo credit McGhiever, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Milford Mine closed in 1932, a casualty of the Great Depression's collapse in steel demand. For decades, the site sat quietly in the Minnesota woods, its story known mainly to the descendants of the men who died there. That changed in 2010, when Crow Wing County began develop...

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Image: McGhiever | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/c/b/m/0/milford-mine-wp/cbm0-milford-mine-silence-then-remembrance.mp3 0:06 5 full