Friends of Creamer’s Field
OUR HISTORY
Friends of Creamer's Field is a community-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to providing educational opportunities at Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge. Friends of Creamer's Field volunteers staff the Farmhouse Visitor Center, provide guided nature walks during the summer, and organize special educational events throughout the year.
STAFF
Alexis Runstadler, Development Director Melissa Sikes, Program Director
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Roxie Creamer, President
Cyndie Beale, Vice President
Herbert Davis, Treasurer
Arlene Strandberg, Secretary
Amal Ajmi
Bob Craig
Jeff Creamer
Martin Gutoski
Bill Holman
Joyce Kelso
Donna Krier
Herb Melchior
Joy Morrison
Tom Robinson
Jon Runstadler
OUR ORGANIZATION
Friends of Creamer’s Field is a 501c(3) organization supported by members, donors, volunteers, grants, and proceeds from our Visitor Center gift shop. Please consider joining as a member today! We work in cooperation with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and many other organizations including the Alaska Bird Observatory, Arctic Audubon, Ducks Unlimited, the Northern Alaska Environmental Center, the Wildlife Society, the Alaska Public Lands Office, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others.
HOMES FOR WILDLIFE
Creamer's Refuge is comprised of a wide variety of different habitats which provide homes for a diversity of animals. But the refuge plays a special role in the lives of migratory birds. Even though some birds such as Canada geese, pintails and golden plovers stay for only a short time, they depend on Creamer's Refuge to feed and rest each spring and fall. Other birds such as Sandhill cranes, shovelers, and mallards may remain the whole summer. Visitors enjoy excellent bird watching spring through fall.
Creamer's Refuge appeals to other types of wildlife as well. Visitors frequently spot moose meandering through the forest, snowshoe hares nibbling on willows, squirrels chattering or a red fox pouncing on voles at the field's edge.
CREAMER’S DAIRY
During the gold rush at the turn of the century, Belle and Charles Hinckley brought three cows and some horses from Nome, Alaska, by steamboat and sternwheeler to the small outpost of Fairbanks to operate a dairy. They paid for their passage by selling milk to other passengers. On the last leg of the journey, they met and became friends with the Creamers, another pioneer family on their way to Fairbanks. In 1928 the Creamers purchased the dairy from the Hinckleys and continued to develop, enlarge, and operate it until 1966. It was the largest and most successful dairy in interior Alaska.
CREATION OF A REFUGE
As the dairy grew over the years, migratory waterfowl congregated at Creamer's Field in increasing numbers. The grain and large open fields provided prime habitat. When the dairy went up for sale in 1966, local residents met to plan a way to purchase the property. Along with money raised by the community, the State legislature provided funds (25%) to match with the federal government's Pittman-Robertson funds (75%) to purchase the 250 acre farm. Management was given to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG). In 1970 an adjacent 1500 acres of state land was added and the entire parcel designated "Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge" in 1979. Since that time, additional acreage has been added to the Refuge, bringing its total size to 2000 acres.
