Despite its name, the Spanish Flu of 1918 started in Haskell County, Kansas.

In January 1918, a local doctor reported a rash of deadly influenza cases. The mortality of the disease was so unusual that a physician in the area sent a message to the Public Health Service in Washington, D.C., which reported it in its regular bulletin about outbreaks of contagious diseases.

With the United States at war, men and women were on the move across the country. The flu appeared to run its course in Haskell County, and the disease didn't garner much note, not even when it began to spread.

In March, Camp Funston, a U.S. military camp in Kansas, was gripped by an outbreak of influenza. It seems likely that it came from Haskell County, 300 miles away but in the same state. More than 1,100 soldiers were sickened, and 38 young, healthy men died of the flu.

As the disease ebbed, soldiers from Camp Funston were sent to the East Coast and on to Europe. The flu went with them. By the time it returned to the United States in the fall, it had become much more deadly. With nations still under wartime censorship, the first reliable reports on this deadly "new" disease came from neutral Spain, and as such, the spreading disease became known as the Spanish Flu ...

If you're interested in learning more, I suggest reading John Barry's The Great Influenza, which remains the most popular history of the disease, even 10 years after its publication.