- — Plutor
The Acres
From The Great Outdoor Fight
The Great Outdoor Fight has taken place on The Acres, an isolated parcel of land surrounded by a fence and barbed wire near Bakersfield, since 1857. Before that, The Fight was held at Ken Crandall's farm. The Fight’s organizers watch over the grounds from Tower One, built on top of the fence.
The Acres were originally merely contained within an eight-foot high board fence, with a gate set in it and a roofed observation platform on the outside of it. However the wall, gate, and platform all burned down in 1919 and the chainlink fence with its barbed wire, as well as the New Gate and the new Tower, were constructed that year. The fence itself has been upgraded several times over the years but the tower built during the 1919 construction still stands.
Extensive structural damage to the fence and Tower One were inflicted by the Son of Rodney during the 2006 fight. The cost of renovation of The Acres was incredibly expensive, more so, in fact, than just building a new location for the fight, but it was decided to rebuild the old ones for the sake of tradition. Due to the construction taking nearly two years to complete the 2007 fight saw a lot of use of improvised weapons (mostly industrial scrap) and the only use of armed guards since the 1958 fight, due to one whole side of the acres still not having a wall.
[edit] The "backup Acres"
A three Acre enclosure maintained by the family of 1935 Champion Silas Losey, used only once, to host the 1942 Fight, for which they were constructed.
