Over many years, Custer Mine changed from a working coal mine into today's Custer Mine Wildlife Management Area. While mining was still underway, local residents began planting trees on the mine spoil banks with trees supplied by the ND Game and Fish Department and the West McLean Soil Conservation District. The Garrison Sportsman's Club began these tree-planting bees in May 1949, and Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4-H members, and school groups usually helped on Sunday afternoons. People from toddlers to the elderly joined in, with older people digging holes and youngsters setting tiny trees into place, even on steep banks with precarious footing, and local Garrison businesses rewarded the day's work with bottles of pop. Through these cooperative efforts, Custer Mine became Custer Mine Wildlife Management Area on November 9, 1984, when Consolidation Coal Company deeded the land to the ND Game and Fish Department.