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Koshare Indian Museum

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1944, Damon O. Runyon. 115 W. 18th St. (northwest corner of Santa Fe Ave.)
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

This stuccoed cinderblock Pueblo Revival complex on the Otero Junior College campus surrounds a kiva that is 60 feet in diameter with a roof formed by 637 layered logs. The Nebraska architect supposedly studied Indian kiva roofs and designed the span using toothpicks and a teacup. This museum complex was developed by Explorer Scouts under the direction of James F. “Buck” Burshears (1909–1987), who in 1933 began studying and performing traditional Indian dances and making costumes. Burglar bars on the lower windows of the viga-studded museum building are designed to resemble corn plants. They guard a fabulous collection of Native American artifacts, including San Ildefonso Pueblo pottery and Taos School paintings by, among others, Ernest L. Blumenschein and Joseph Henry Sharp.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Finney House
San Juan Avenue Historic District
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Offices
Post Office
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Hospital (Mennonite Sanatarium)

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Koshare Indian Museum", [La Junta, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-OT08.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 392-392.

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