 n 1880, when Lillie Lyon was a schoolgirl, her family became early settlers in what would become the town of Lyons. After marrying her teacher, Thomas Jefferson Thome, Lillie and her husband homesteaded land of their own on the road to Estes Park. Eventually they established Thorncroft, a sanitarium for patients with consumption, which Lillie operated alone for years after her husband's death in 1904. Upon remarrying, she and her new husband changed Thorncroft into a resort for tourists. They named it Bella Vista, capitalizing on the area's natural beauty. Lillie died at the age of 69 of consumption-a disease she had treated for nearly 30 years. |
