Shawnee Mission, Kansas facts for kids
Shawnee Mission is a special area in northern Johnson County, Kansas. It's part of the larger Kansas City metropolitan area in the United States.
Since 1960, the United States Postal Service has used "Shawnee Mission" as a name for a big postal area. This area includes many towns in the northeastern part of Johnson County. Using this name helps the post office manage mail delivery for all these towns. When you send mail, you can often use "Shawnee Mission" or the actual town name, and it will still get to the right place!
Towns in the Shawnee Mission Postal Area
Many towns are part of the Shawnee Mission postal area. Here are some of them:
- Countryside (This town became part of Mission in 2003)
- Fairway
- Lake Quivira (The northern part is in Wyandotte County, Kansas)
- Leawood
- Lenexa
- Merriam
- Mission
- Mission Hills
- Mission Woods
- Overland Park (Most of it, but not all)
- Prairie Village
- Roeland Park
- Shawnee
- Stanley (This is an unincorporated area, meaning it's not an official city)
- Westwood
- Westwood Hills
It's good to know that some parts of southern Overland Park are not in the Shawnee Mission postal area. This is because they were added from another town called Stilwell, which had its own postal code. Also, the Prairie Village post office was managed separately until 2012.
History of the Name
The name "Shawnee Mission" comes from a very old place called the Shawnee Methodist Mission. This mission was started in 1830 by the Methodist church. It was built to help the Shawnee Native American tribe.
The original mission was in what is now Wyandotte County, Kansas. Later, in 1839, it moved to what is now Johnson County. Over time, the area around this mission became known informally as "Shawnee Mission." This was especially true before many towns grew and connected in northeast Johnson County.
Today, the Shawnee Mission School District and the Blue Valley School District cover most of this area.
Population and Growth
Shawnee Mission is an important part of the Kansas City metropolitan area. In 2015, the towns that make up Shawnee Mission had a combined population of over 402,000 people. This number has grown quite a bit since 2000, when it was around 325,000. To give you an idea, this population is even bigger than Wichita, which is the largest city in Kansas!
