Spring Creek Lodge

Spring Creek Lodge, opened on Memorial Day 1949, was a pioneer business and important local gathering place during the early years of the community of Chugiak, located about twenty miles north of downtown Anchorage. Vernon Haik staked a homestead at the site along the Glenn Highway (Palmer Highway) in 1947, and with his wife Alma and children, moved to it. From the start, the Haiks planned to open and operate a roadside stop. Located about mid-way between the communities of Anchorage and Palmer, for twenty years Spring Creek Lodge served meals to travelers and local residents. It was a popular destination for Anchorage residents, especially on Sundays. Local residents gathered at the lodge for several community organizing meetings.
Virtually unaltered, although used as a residence today, Spring Creek Lodge reflects the explosive growth of the greater Anchorage area during the post-World War II era. Although the building was a restaurant until 1969, the period of significance ended in 1950, fifty years ago, when both sections of the building were completed.

Vernon and Alma Haik moved to Alaska in 1936 to homestead in the Matanuska Valley but found no suitable land available. They left Alaska during World War II but returned in 1946 after hearing about construction work at Fort Richardson. Vernon found work as a surveyor. He staked a homestead beside the Glenn Highway (Palmer Highway) and began work on a house. The site was named for a spring on top of a hill back of the house and its creek that ran across the property. Later additions to the original 40-acre homestead expanded the property to 71 acres.
Work on the restaurant started in 1948 after the house was built. Vernon and several friends hauled logs from Goat Creek just south of the Knik River, fifteen miles north of the lodge site.

Spring Creek Lodge opened on Memorial Day 1949. Known for Alma's homemade bread and particularly the banana cream pies made with cream from the Matanuska Valley and bananas flown in from Seattle, the lodge became a popular spot for local residents to gather and it drew crowds of Sunday diners from Anchorage. A number of engagements and weddings took place at the lodge. The Haiks operated Spring Creek Lodge until 1962. They left Alaska in 1966.

Initially, the lodge had an apartment-sized gas stove, and later in the first season of operation, a propane refrigerator. Until the refrigerator was acquired, the meat and milk were stored in a large crock in the creek. Gas lanterns and candles lit the lodge until a noisy five-kilowatt generator on wheels was acquired. The next year, Matanuska Electric reached the area. One of the first things added to the lodge after the electricity was installed was an ice cream cabinet from the Matanuska Milk Company. A few years after the Haiks staked their homestead the U.S. Bureau of Public Roads paved the highway.

The families in the community - the Haiks, Paul and Margaret Swanson, Les and Dorothy Fetrow, Cloyce and Justine Parks, Jim and Marie McDowell, Henning and Ruth Johnson, and another family met at the lodge to choose a name for their community. Henning Johnson submitted the name Chugiak which he said meant "place of many places" in the local Chugach Athabaskan language. The group adopted the name and built a community hall a half mile from Spring Creek Lodge. Another early community project was to install a telephone system to connect the scattered families.

Gene Beckvar purchased the lodge from the Haiks and operated it for a short time. He sold it in 1967 to Richard Farrens who operated it until 1969. The lodge closed in 1969 when construction of the new Glenn Highway bypassed it. The lodge is now a private residence. The exterior has not been altered since the Haiks added the kitchen and storeroom in 1950, and the interior very little.