Fourteen miles east of McAlester sits a town whose name is always synonymous with "home". It's where I was raised. It's where I went to school. It’s so linked to me, it's a part of my identity.

When asked where I'm from, I proudly say Haileyville, Oklahoma: Population 900.

The town was established by former Confederate surgeon Dr. D.M. Hailey in 1898. Hailey started the coal mining business giving the town its boom. Thus, Haileyville was forged of coal in the middle of Choctaw country in Indian Territory.

(Photo caption: Town-marker sign at the beginning of town.)

You get to Haileyville several ways, depending where you're coming from. I would say the most popular is via US Highway 270, since this is the route coming from McAlester. (I drove that road probably 20,000 times from the time I rode into town with my parents as a baby to the time I started college.)

After passing by the town-marker sign, you see several buildings. The very first one on the left is a store with more uses than I can count over the years I've been alive. (Once upon a time, it was an Italian restaurant, but now, an army surplus store.) The next building is a consignment store that does fairly well.

Next to the consignment store is the feed store, where my grandfather bought feed and supplies for his cattle. A little on up the road is McCullar's body shop and then what I call the "bazaar" -- an amalgamation of different stalls where people sell everything from antiques to fishing poles.

Farther down is the post office (with the zip code 74546 in big, bold letters on the side) and the Twins Café. Then less than a mile down the road is Hartshorne. Hartshorne and Haileyville are known as the "Twin Cities", due to their proximity to one another. (They are rivals in everything, but you put a Haileyvillian and a Hartshornite in a room full of people from elsewhere, they'd be best friends.)

Behind the post office and the café is a wide-open lot bordered by houses and the Haileyville Christian Church. (Railroad tracks and a turn table occupied that area back in the coal mining days.) Beyond the openness, to the north, you find Craig, Gleason, Lander, and Lake avenues.

On the other side of the highway on Main Street stands the new gas station, as well as a bait shop where we used to by minnows to go fishing in Brushy Creek, and an old building we’ve always called Gringo's because, at one time, it was a Mexican restaurant by that name.

(Photo caption: Gringo's (middle) and the bait shop (right) on Main Street.)

On the corner of Main and Horrine Avenue is a white gas station building, one of the oldest edifices in all of Haileyville. Continuing east across Horrine Avenue is city hall (an unassuming building perched on top of a hill overlooking 270).

Going back up Horrine Avenue to 3rd Street, taking you past First Baptist Church, you see Haileyville School at the corner of 3^rd Street and Riley Avenue (named after Dr. Hailey's good friend John B. Riley).

Photo caption: Front side of the high school, at the corner of Third Street and Riley Avenue.

The school comprises of the elementary school and high school. I attended classes every year from preschool to 12th grade, graduating one out of 23 students in my class. The old school burnt down a long time ago leaving A.L. King Gymnasium, one of the oldest parts of the new school, where I saw many basketball games and danced at junior prom.

(Photo caption: Looking down Hailey Avenue, to the north.)

From Riley Avenue, heading east to Walcott Avenue, and then up to 4th Street, you skirt the student parking lot. Going west on 4th Street and past Horrine Avenue, you go all the way down to Hailey Avenue (the street in the town named for the town's namesake). If you take Haley Avenue south, you can go to the top of the hill and see the tops of surrounding hills and mountains.

If you take the same street south, almost all the way to the end, you pass by Baldwin's Variety Store where you can buy anything from balloons to bolts. The Baldwins owned the store for longer than I've been alive. They know everyone in town, including my parents and grandparents. That’s the thing about people in Haileyville. Everyone knows everyone, so you never meet a stranger.

(Photo caption: Baldwin's Variety Store, Hailey Avenue.)

(Photo caption: Corner of Main and Hailey.)

You're now at the corner of Main and Hailey. One block west is the junction of State Highway 63 and 270. Going out of town, Highway 63 skirts the football field where I showed my Warrior pride after watching several Homecoming ceremonies.

(Photo caption: Scoreboard at the football field.)

No matter where I go or what I do, that town will always be home. When I was younger, I couldn't wait to chase the sun across the horizon. Now, after moving away to complete my college degree, I know there is no place like Haileyville.

[Thank you to Sean and Tara Dawson for helping me with this article.]