This month in History: Town organizes boxing match to fund Children's Christmas Party and tree

In Dec. of 1938, the town of Mountain Home came up with a unique way to fund the community's children's Christmas Tree Party. Eighty years ago the Great Depression was slowly coming to an end, but times were still tough and communities and organizations were having to get creative to fund projects and holiday traditions.

Boxing was a big deal in the 1930s and the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce used it to spread a little Christmas cheer amongst the community’s children. The topic of the big boxing event was front page news throughout the month of December with a total of fifteen different boxing matches between local boys and boys from the CCC camps. There was also two wrestling matches and performances by a band in between bouts.

Many of the local boys mentioned bare last names that are still heard around town today. For the full story, pick up a copy of the Mountain Home News or click on this link to subscribe to the newspaper's online edition.