20th and 21st centuries Gunnison residents isolated themselves from the surrounding area during the Spanish Influenza epidemic for two months at the end of 1918. All highways were barricaded near the county lines. Train conductors warned all passengers that if they stepped outside of the train in Gunnison, they would be arrested and quarantined for five days.H. Markel, A.M. Stern, J. A. Navarro, J. R. Michalsen, A. S. Monto, and C. DiGiovanni, "Nonpharmaceutical Influenza Mitigation Strategies, US Communities, 1918–1920 Pandemic," Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 12, No. 12, December 2006. This served as partial inspiration for the novel The Last Town on Earth (2006) by Thomas Mullen. Although the isolation was at first successful at preventing transmission or deaths, the townspeople became restless after a few months, and the isolation was lifted in February 1919 only to have the flu arrive a month later, killing two people.
20th and 21st centuries Gunnison residents isolated themselves f.rom the surrounding area during the Spanish Influenza epidemic for two months at the end of 1918. All highways were barricaded near the county lines Train conductors warned all passengers that if they stepped outside of the train in Gunnison, they would be arrested and quarantined. for five days.H. Markel, A.M. Stern, J. A. Navarro, J. R. Michalsen, A. S Monto, and C. DiGiovanni, "Nonpharmaceutical Influenza Mitigation Strategies, US Communities, 1918–1920 Pandemic," Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol. 12, No. 12, December 2006. This served as partial inspiration for the novel The Last Town on Earth (2006) by Thomas Mullen. Although the isolation was at first successful at preventing transmission or deaths, the townspeople became restless after a few months, and the isolation was lifted in February 1919 only to have the flu arrive a month later, killing two people.