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Show THE HISTORY BLAZER A'EM'S OF IT.. H ' S PAST FROAI THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake Citp. lTT 84101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3303 The 1918- 19 Flu Epidemic Reached Remote Areas of Utah As UTAHNSJO INED THE REST OF THE NATION in cheering the end of World War 1 and the defeat of " Kaiser Bill," another enemy, an extremely contagious flu virus, unleashed a worldwide epidemic. First loosed in the United States in spring 1918, it soon engulfed the world and proved deadlier than the war. Globally the disease killed as many as 20 million people. In Utah over 40,000 people contracted the disease and of them over 1,700 died. It affected everyone from the Ute Indians on the Uintah Reservation to city folk to those living in small farming towns such as Hurricane and La Verkin in Washington County. In Hurricane, school, church, and show halls all closed and everyone wore gauze masks. In fact, resident Alice Stratton recalled, " anyone caught on the streets without one was subject to arrest." Stratton's mother kept a simmering pan of Lysol water on the back of the kitchen stove in which the masks were disinfected, and nearby a stack of fresh clean shields waited for anyone who ventured " downtown." The quarantine was long and lonely, and despite all their precautions Stratton's family still caught the flu. The ill lay strewn over the living room floor where they auld be near the fire and their mother could constantly administer water, soup, mustard plasters, and a cool hand on hot foreheads. During this time of death most people kept to themselves for fear of being infected, and even Santa Claus that year did not dare venture into homes. Instead, he stopped at every gate in town in a Model T Ford, distributing stockings filled with candied Popcorn- Those who were well helped others. Some men in Hurricane and La Verkin chopped wood, fed and milked cows, and tended to other outside chores for their sick neighbors. Some women, like Ruth May Fox in northern Utah, even went into contaminated homes to bathe, clean, feed, and otherwise minister to the ailing. Fox recalled, " I offered my services as a volunteer nurse during the 1918 influenza epidemic, when people were dying and everybody was afraid to go help them. I cared for seven families, and although untrained, I worked hard." The flu epidemic eventually subsided, and life without gauze masks returned to Utah. Even so, the persistent virus made occasional unwelcome visits. For example, in March 1922 the Hurricane town board again quarantined residents due to the flu's reappearance. For the most part, however, the feared disease never returned in the same lethal proportions as 1918- 19. THEH ISTORBLYA ZER is produced by the Utah State Historical Society and funded in part by a grant from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. |
