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Ghost Town
In NorthernColorado
LongsPeak 
PioneerClimbers
Outlaws
In EarlyColorado
Skiing
SteamboatSprings
 
Ghost Towns
Tincup andSaint Elmo
PoudreCanyon
Early Travel
Blizzardof 1913
NorthColorado
EstatePlanning,Health,andNews
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The Senior
 January 2009
Local Attractions • Scenic Places • History • Money • Health • News
 
2• January 2009 • The Senior Voice
 About Medicare
O
ur health care system is broken,and Americans are feeling thepain.Washington needs to addressthis. We can start with some practicalsolutions that members of both polit-ical parties should agree on.First, we should expand theChildren’s Health Insurance Program.Right now millions of children areuninsured. We should immediatelypass bipartisan legislation to helpcover them.Second, we should grant Medicarethe ability to negotiate with drugcompanies to bring down the cost of medicines. This will help contain thespiraling costs of that program.Third, we need to give consumersinformation needed to make wise healthcare decisions. To that end, I’ve intro-duced consumer protection legislationthat would require insurance companiesto have a standardized description of benefits. Just like the sticker you seewhen buying a car, you should havestraightforward information on thehealth care plan you’re choosing.Fourth, we should reduce costs bydeploying electronic health recordsand making better use of informationtechnology. In many ways, health carebureaucracy is stuck in the dark ages.Fifth, we should allow the re-importation of prescription drugs tolower costs for consumers. It is anoutrage that Americans don’t haveaccess to the same high-quality, safeprescription drugs that are available forfar less in Canada.I will be active in these efforts inWashington. I hope you will look atmy website, www.salazar.senate.gov,and share your ideas with me.It will take courage to fix ourhealth care system, but we I believe wecan do it.________________
You can call Sen. Ken Salazar’s Fort Collins office at 224-2200.
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any Medicare patients do notknow that the program will payfor some treatments in one state butnot another.For instance, a new prostate cancertreatment called CyberKnife is coveredby Medicare in New Hampshire butnot across the border in Vermont.This mainly affects new treat-ments like CyberKnife, which is notcovered in Colorado, Wyoming and15 other states. States decide if thetreatment is too experimental anddoes not have a long enough historyof success.CyberKnife is a new radiationtreatment for prostate cancer that ismore convenient than traditionalprocedures, requiring only five daysof treatment instead of eight weeks.Some doctors say it is a greatimprovement; others say we do notknow enough about its safety orlong-term effects and consider it“investigational.”Each state has a Medicarecontractor that determines what treat-ments will be covered. Thecontractors are units of private insur-ance companies.
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new federal regulation nowallows states to charge low-income Medicaid patients premiumsand higher co-payments for theirhealth services.Co-payments will not be muchfor the poorest patients, only about$3.50 for a doctor visit, for instance.But some Medicaid patients withincomes above the poverty level willpay up to 20 percent co-pays forservices. Some will pay $30 for a$150 drug prescription.Critics say this will discouragemany such patients from gettingmedical services. State and federal offi-cials agree but say the change is neededto control rapidly rising Medicaid costsand discourage patients from usingemergency rooms for routine care.Many Medicaid patients are immi-grants. The program also coverschildren of low-income families andpoor retirees. Government officialsexpect the change to affect 13 millionpeople (about one-fifth of allMedicaid recipients).The change could reduceMedicaid costs by several billiondollars over the next few years.
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Medicare Coverage VariesMajor Change in Medicaid
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 ByU.S. SenatorKen Salazar
 
The Senior Voice • January 2009 • 3
 Published Locally Since 1980
 VOL. 29, NO. 2
email thevoice@frii.com www.theseniorvoice.net
PUBLICATION INFORMATION
The Senior Voice 
newspaper has beenpublished locally the first of each monthsince 1980 for residents age 50-plus.
 ADVERTISING
 Ad deadline is 20th of month.For rates, call 970-229-9204;or see www.theseniorvoice.net.
 Wolfgang Lambdin Advertising Director  Associate Publisher Fort Collins(970) 229-9204
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 Announcements and stories must bereceived by the 10th of the month.; ads by the 20th of the month.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The Senior Voice 
 welcomes readers' lettersand contributions. Enclose a self-addressedenvelope and return postage to:
The Senior Voice 
, 1471 Front Nine Drive, Fort Collins,CO 80525, or email thevoice@frii.com.
The Senior Voice 
assumes no responsibility fordamaged or lost material submitted by readers.
© Copyright 2009
The Senior Voice 
EDITORIAL OFFICE:
1471 Front Nine DriveFort Collins, CO 80525(970) 223-9271email thevoice@frii.com www.theseniorvoice.net
No material may be reproduced by any means without permission of the publisher.
Dr. William Lambdin, Publisher 
By Bill Lambdin
C
olorado has many ghost townsthat are fun to discover whenyou’re hiking or driving in themountains, and they can put you intouch with the state’s colorful past.Two of them are Tincup and SaintElmo.Tincup is northeast of Gunnison, about 12 miles south of Taylor Park Reservoir on theCumberland Pass Road (or 26miles north of the town of Pitkin).Tincup was a wild, wickedmining town controlled entirely byowners of the saloons, gamblinghalls and whorehouses. The townwent through seven sheriffs in afew short years.The first sheriff, known as OldMan Willis, was told: “Seenothing, hear nothing, do nothing.The first arrest you make will beyour last.”Willis soon resigned because hereceived no pay. His successor,Tom Lahay, jailed several peopleand was fired.The third sheriff was gunneddown by Lahay. The fourth wasshot by the owner of Frenchy’sSaloon, one of the most notoriousdives in early Colorado.The fifth sheriff, Jack Ward,quit to become a preacher. Thesixth, Sam Micky, went insane andwas committed to an asylum.The seventh was shot. Only theeighth sheriff managed to last outhis term.It was 1860 when, according toearly residents, a prospector namedJim Taylor dipped his tin drinkingcup in a stream here and sawflakes of gold in the cup. Somepeople said that was how the townof Tincup got its name.By 1882 Tincup had 3,000 resi-dents, 20 saloons and enoughwhorehouses for an army. Businesswas booming, especially at theundertaker’s place. The town hadfour cemeteries.One visitor was awakened onemorning when someone fired eightshots into his tent. He never knewwhy.The mines began to play outquickly, and by 1890 Tincup wasin decline. It slumbered for years,but it was located in such a scenicarea that people began buildingsummer cabins there in the 1900s,
Tincup in the late 1800s. Colorado Historical Society.
and today it is a popular vacationspot.Saint Elmo was over theContinental Divide east of Tincup,southwest of present Buena Vistaand 17 miles west of the town of Nathrop.Founded in 1880, Saint Elmowas both a mining camp and supplytown for other camps in the area. Inthe mid-1880s, its populationreached nearly 2,000 but declinedrapidly after a fire destroyed muchof the town in 1890.In its heyday, Saint Elmo wasso crowded that men slept onsaloon floors and any place theycould get out of the weather.One visitor recalled asking ahotel owner for separate rooms forhimself and a friend. The ownerreplied, “I’ll give you a bed, andyou can draw a chalk mark aroundit for a room.”Early Colorado was a tough,hardscrabble place.________________
COVER PICTURE: Two young foxes in the mountains. Courtesy of the Grand Lake Chamber of Commerce. See their website at www.grandlakechamber.com.
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Colorado Ghost Towns
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