Mining on the Cuyuna Range was complicated by numerous lakes that made ore difficult to find, access, and mine. The Milford Mine lay near both Island Lake and Milford Lake, which before underground mining began was called Foley Lake or Foley Pond and consisted of two bodies of water joined by a narrow neck and surrounded by expansive wetlands. At the time of the 1924 disaster, the easternmost workings of the Milford Mine were about 1,000 feet east of the main shaft beneath a muskeg swamp rather than under the lake itself. When the mine flooded on the afternoon of Tuesday February 5th, the water level in both the swamp and neighboring Foley Lake dropped, leading the investigating committee to conclude that the water bodies were interconnected and that the pressure of Foley Lake contributed to the collapse. The closest room to the lake, directly below this location, had been mined out and blasted down on Friday February 1 but had hung up and did not fully collapse. The remaining arch of rock over that room eventually gave way on February 5th, and as it settled, an opening broke through to the surface. After the disaster drained the lake, investigators documented between 8 and 18 feet of muskeg over the hole that caved into Contact 13.