It contains numerous towns, and the name was created to structure management of the post offices located therein.
[1][2] Properly, a mailing address may indicate the delivery "place" as either Shawnee Mission, or the actual town name, and be treated the same.
The following towns are included in the postal area known as Shawnee Mission: Parts of southern Overland Park are not part of Shawnee Mission, as they were later annexed from the town of Stillwell which was already covered by ZIP Code 66085.
Additionally, delivery to the eastern edge of Overland Park was assigned to the Post Office in Prairie Village, with ZIP Code 66208, and the Prairie Village post office was not managed under the Shawnee Mission designation until 2012.
That historical mission to the Shawnee tribe was founded in 1830 by the Methodist church, in what became Wyandotte County, Kansas.