Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge

Top, the field of the former Creamer's Dairy. Above, closeup of the dairy barns.

Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge is an 1,800 acre (7.3 km²) bird sanctuary, located within the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska and partially within the city limits of Fairbanks. It consists of wetlands, fields, and forests. Except to the south, the refuge surrounds the former farm of Charles Hinckley and later Charles Albert Creamer (1889-1974), a former chicken rancher from Washington state who moved to Fairbanks in 1927 and established Creamer's Dairy at mile 2 (km 3) of the Ester Road (today's College Road), which operated until shortly after the 1967 flood. Creamer saved waste grains from his barn to feed migrating birds. After Creamer's death, preservationists banded together to make the area a state sanctuary associated with the Alaska Bird Observatory. The Creamer farmstead, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, now serves as a visitor center and environmental education center.

Among the birds that flock to the sanctuary in late summer are sandhill cranes, mallard ducks and Canada geese.

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  View of the elevated trail through the boreal forest at Creamers Field

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  Sandhill cranes at Creamers Field

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  Interior of Creamer's barn

See also

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska

External links

• Alaska Department of Fish and Game - Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge
• Friends of Creamer's Field
• National Register nomination for Hinckley-Creamer Dairy