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Koshare Indian Museum
Fun & Interesting Facts

The Koshare Kiva
 

  • In their seventy-five year history, the Koshares have graduated over six hundred Eagle Scouts. For many years they have held the title of the most Eagle Scouts graduated from a single scout troop any where in the world and the most Eagle Scouts graduated per capita.


  • In September of 1933, the Koshares staged their first performance for the public at the St. Andrews Episcopal Church in La Junta. Their first dressing room was a remodled chicken coop which was owned by the Burshears family.


  • After the grand opening of the Koshare Kiva, Buck and the boys counted the money raised from the donation basket and pop machine. Their intention was to pay off some of their bills, but one boy suggested that it would be "swell" if they could purchase a painting from artist Woody Crumbo. They acquired their first painting and from that point on money from the donation basket and proceeds from the pop machine was used to help build their collection of art and artifacts.


  • The Koshares have travelled and performed in forty-nine states, Mexico, Canada and Japan.


  • In 1948, Colorado Governor William Lee Knous called the Koshares "one of Colorado's greatest assets."


  • President Eisenhower once left a cabinet meeting to meet and visit with the Koshares while they were touring the Oval Office.


  • When Buck and the boys first dreamed of building a kiva, they planned on the log roof being entirely self-supported. Many architects of the time, claimed that a massive log roof, like the Koshares planned, was impossible to build. Damon Runyon, the Koshares' architect, wore out three slide rulers attempting to figure out how to build the Koshares' impossible dream. Buck Burshears, Damon Runyon and the Koshares' contractor (Carl Hendren) eventually figured out how to build the impossible. While sitting for tea, an experiment was conducted by putting toothpicks across a teacup in varying layers. Buck Burshears and the Kiva contractor, Carl Hendren, figured this would be the best way to place the logs in the actual roof.