Dr. R. S. Johnston was surgeon in charge of the La Junta hospital when the Koshares were first beginning. Johnston played a most important role in bringing Scouting to La Junta around 1919 or 1920. Dr. Johnston had met Dr. Meninger in Topeka, Kansas, and became inspired from the Scout Leader meetings he attended. Dr. Meninger and his Sea Scouts had a National Campion Sea Scout Ship for several years and they were recognized nationally in scouting.
In 1923, Dr. Johnston hired and paid for the first Scout Executive position for the Arkansas Valley Council in La Junta. Three years later the Arkansas Valley Council merged with Spanish Peaks Council in Trinidad and then by 1930, due to the depression, Spanish Peaks Council was merged under the Rocky Mountain
