One hundred years ago this week, October 12th, 1918, wildfires swept across fifteen hundred square miles of St. Louis, Carlton, Pine and Aitkin counties, killing over 450 people. At the same time, World War One was coming to an end, and a virulent strain of a flu virus that came from a pig on a Kansas farm, was spreading around the world, and would eventually kill more than 50 million peoples in what has been called the deadliest epidemic in world history.
In his new book, “Minnesota 1918: When Flu, Fire, and War Ravaged the State”, Curt Brown has chronicled dozens of tragic stories about people in Minnesota who were caught up in these disasters.
