On Oct. 10, 1918, ‘Des Moines goes under quarantine today.’ Thus read the first line of a front-page article on the influenza epidemic in the city’s newspaper, the Des Moines Register. Influenza had been circulating in the city for the past two weeks, but the number of cases reported had been small.

It was at Camp Dodge, a dozen miles or so northwest of Des Moines, where the epidemic was raging. There, as many as 3,000 soldiers were ill.

City officials knew, however, that it was only a matter of time before the epidemic hit civilians with the same vigor. For that reason, the Board of Health voted to close all churches, schools, and places of amusement and congregation.

Residents were asked to remain at home if they began to experience symptoms of illness as state law did not permit the mandatory quarantining of influenza cases. Officials knew that such measures would not prevent an epidemic, but hoped that it would reduce the total number of cases and spread them out across a longer time period so as not to overwhelm Des Moines’ healthcare infrastructure.

It was an incredibly sophisticated understanding of how best to handle an influenza epidemic, one that was lacking in most other American cities at the time.