The Ahtanum Creek Prize Fight
A covert Sunday morning bout between a local black man and a white opponent draws a crowd of Yakima's 'sportively inclined' citizens.
A prizefight between a young negro and a white man named Smith, for a purse of $70, took place on Sunday morning at a point four miles up the Ahtanum. The number of vehicles that left the city, freighted with those who are sportively inclined, gave the snap away and it was generally known what was going on. The fight was brisk but short, only five rounds having been fought, when Smith, with a swinging blow, caught the negro on the jaw and laid him out cold.
“The number of vehicles that left the city, freighted with those who are sportively inclined, gave the snap away.”
Prize fighting was largely illegal and socially frowned upon in this era, forcing the 'sporting' class into the remote creek bottoms of the Yakima Valley to conduct their business. While boxing is now a regulated, mainstream spectacle, this report captures the clandestine nature of 19th-century frontier athletics.
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