Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Fanshawe, OK

Fanshawe is a town that straddles the line between Le Flore and Latimer counties in far west-central Le Flore County, about twenty miles southwest of Poteau on U.S. Highway 270.

A post office was established at Fanshawe, Indian Territory, on March 31, 1891, when the community lay in the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation.

Fanshawe got its name in an unusual way — railroad executives on an inspection trip over the newly built Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad drew names from a hat at each station stop, and the name drawn honored John R. Fanshawe of Philadelphia, an employee of the railroad.

Although the postal designation dates to 1891, the townsite was not surveyed and platted until August 29, 1902.

Fanshawe's early economy rested on lumbering, coal mining, lumber milling, farming, stock raising, and work on the railroad; around 1911 roughly one hundred residents supported two grocers and two general stores.

On June 7, 1963, Fanshawe annexed an approximately twenty-two-square-mile rural area, giving the small town a total area of about 22.7 square miles — enormous for a community of a few hundred people.

Fanshawe's population peaked at 419 in the 2010 census before falling to 317 in 2020; back in 2000 the census counted 384 people living in 146 households.