In 1900, the Victor Museum building was the Tompkins Hardware Store, part of the Reynolds Block, and its upstairs offices at one time served as the Mining Exchange; in later years it became the Hackley Store and Hotel. Victor’s most famous former resident, Lowell Thomas, moved there with his family in 1900 when he was 8 years old, graduated from Victor High School, began his journalism career as editor of the Victor Daily Record, and later worked for newspapers in Denver and Chicago. He became an internationally renowned radio news broadcaster, author, and film producer; his first book, With Lawrence in Arabia, was followed by more than 30 others, and he was most famous for a 46-year radio career from 1930 to 1976, during which his 15-minute nightly news and commentary reached a worldwide audience larger than the combined audience of the NBC, CBS, and ABC TV news anchors today. Thomas modestly credited his convenient time slot before the Amos’n Andy Show for his success, while people in Victor attributed part of it to his roots in the World’s Greatest Gold Camp; he also acknowledged that influence, returned to Victor frequently throughout his career to visit old friends, and chronicled the changes time brought to the area. Beginning in 1932, he also narrated Fox-Movietone newsreels shown in theaters, his Cinerama Productions Company made movies seen around the world, and he starred in the 1950s television series High Adventure with Lowell Thomas. President Gerald Ford presented him the Medal of Freedom Award on January 6, 1976; a few months later in Victor, Thomas announced that his last broadcast would be on May 14 of that year. He visited Victor for the last time in August 1981 and died three weeks later at his estate in Pawling, New York. The museum began in 1961 as the Victor Museum, started showcasing memorabilia from Thomas’s career in 1981, also features displays on the mining heritage of Victor and the World’s Greatest Gold Camp, and has an outdoor exhibit of mining machinery behind the building.