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Get to Know Me

When asked as a child what I wanted to be when I grew up I enthusiastically answered, "Laura Ingalls Wilder!" I truly wanted to become a person who churned butter, wore calico, and was unlikely to live past 7 years of age due to a lack of modern medicine. I came by that desire legitimately. My mom is a voracious reader, and my dad a history buff and a criminal defense attorney. I have two older sisters who went to great lengths to make my world magical. They always reminded me that I could do anything that I set my mind to. We spent innumerable hours in the back of an orange VW van traversing the country, hearing the stories of the people who came before us. I eventually realized that perhaps studying people who lived on the Western Frontier would be safer than attempting to be one. It's little wonder that I became a historian!

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Vision

My vision is to share history in a way that gets people excited and hopeful about the future. To actively engage minds and bodies in exploring the past. To explore a history that includes everyone, not just the winners. And to bring history to life and to you!

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Presentations & Publications

Presentations:

  • Lyons, Victoria, Grace McGinnis: Leading Madam & Legal Maven, Montana Historical Conference, Helena, MT, September 2025.

  • Lyons, Victoria, Alma Smith Jacobs & Lucille Smith Thompson: Librarians and Activists, Montana State University’s Wikipedia Edit-a-thon: “Women in Montana”, Bozeman, MT, March 2025.

  • Lyons, Victoria, History’s Mystery: Bozeman’s Piece of the Chinese Lottery Puzzle, The Rotary Club, Bozeman, MT, October 2024.

  • Lyons, Victoria, History After Dark: Ghosts of Bozeman’s Past, The Extreme History Project, Bozeman, MT, October 2024.

  • Lyons, Victoria, Chapter 64: The Road to Post-Conviction Testing in Texas (co-authored with Jack Blackburn), Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, 7th Annual Forensics/Innocence Seminar, Houston, TX, October 2009.

  • Lyons, Victoria, Staging the West: A History of Flagstaff’s Buffalo Park. Arizona History Convention, Tempe AZ, April 2003.

 

Publications

  • Lyons, Victoria, Disgraceful Shacks and Fire Traps: Carnegie Library, Bozeman Magazine, (March 2024).

  • Lyons, Victoria, History’s Mystery: Bozeman’s Piece of the Chinese Lottery Puzzle, Gallatin History Museum Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 3 (August 2024).

  • Lyons, Victoria, The History of Hawthorne: East Side School to Art Deco Hub, Bozeman Magazine, (September 2024).

 

Curated Exhibitions:

  • Illuminating the Shadowed World of Bozeman’s Red-Light District, The Extreme History Project, 234 E. Mendenhall,

  •  Bozeman, MT, Co-curator, February 2023 – Current.

  • B.M. Bower: A Female Author in a Man’s West, The Extreme History Project, 234 E. Mendenhall, Bozeman, MT, Co-curator, September 2025-Current.

Education

December 2009 – Juris Doctorate, Texas Tech University School of Law

May 2007 – Master of Arts – Museum Studies, Texas Tech University

May 2003 – Master of Arts – History, Northern Arizona University

December 2000 – Bachelor of Arts – History, University of San Francisco

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Memberships

  • Board Member, The Extreme History Project

  • Board Member, Friends of the Story Mansion

  • Member, The Montana Historical Society

  • Member, The American Association For State and Local History

  • Member, Mountain Plains Museum Association

Bozeman, Montana

based, but a lover of

the Greater West.

Bar Admissions

  • The State Bar of Texas

  • The State Bar of New Mexico

  • The State Bar of Washington

  • The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals

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