Knitting at Park

Red Cross volunteers gathered on the steps of the Park Building in 1918 to knit scarves and other items for the war effort. As if the strain of WWI wasn’t enough, that same year, the Spanish Flu broke out and swept across the globe, eventually infecting one-third of the world’s population. In Utah, about 100,000 people contracted the disease and nearly 3,000 died. Public gatherings were banned. Schools, churches, and theaters closed, and people began wearing masks in public. By the summer of 1919, the pandemic had mostly run its course. The war formally ended about the same time with the Treaty of Versailles.