Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Panama, OK

Panama is a town in Le Flore County, Oklahoma, located about nine miles north of Poteau, the county seat, on State Highway 59.

Panama began as a coal mining community nicknamed Red Town, because all of the miners' shacks were painted red.

A post office was first established at Panama, Indian Territory, on January 14, 1898, when the community lay in Skullyville County of the Moshulatubbee District of the Choctaw Nation, though the order was rescinded weeks later and the post office did not reopen until February 21, 1899.

The origin of Panama's name is uncertain — although some claim it was inspired by construction of the Panama Canal, the town already carried the name by 1898, years before the American canal effort began in 1904.

The town moved to the crossing of two railroads, the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf line built in 1896 and the Midland Valley Railroad's east-west line built in 1903-1904.

The Ozark Coal and Mining Company established operations at Panama in 1898, and coal mining supported the town into the 1930s before the mines began to close; a creosote plant established in 1937 provided replacement jobs, and the Panama Coal Company's strip-mining operation lasted until it went bankrupt in 1977.

Panama's population peaked at 1,528 residents in the 1990 census.

The 2020 census counted 1,269 people in Panama living in 520 households, with a median age of 37.9 years.

About 13.6 percent of Panama's residents identified as American Indian or Alaska Native in the 2020 census, reflecting the town's Choctaw Nation heritage.

Panama covers about 1.5 square miles in northern Le Flore County, near the Arkansas state line.