There was a dentist in camp to tend to everyone's teeth. In addition once a year some dentists from the TCI Hospital would come to the school to check every child's teeth.
Although most of a persons need could be taken care of in Edgewater, the need for travel was satisfied by train. The miners rode a train back and forth from Wylam. There was also a man named Cap Reeves who ran a taxi to and from Wylam for 5 cents.
In 1951 the company decided to sell the houses to the public. The present occupants had the first option to buy. Many people bought and lived in these houses and raised families. By 1967 there were only 63 children in the grammar school. Soon afterward the school was closed and torn down. In 1980 the teachers cottage burned so badly it was torn down and a trailer took its place. By this time the commissary, dope stand, doctors office, dentist office, kindergarten, and school were gone. Still the homes and the Guild Hall stood proudly through time to remind us of the America that was.
On the night of April 8th 1998 I stood at the top of the stairs in my home. A storm raged outside. The wife and children were in the basement. I being a ham operator was listening to the storm spotters used by the National Weather Service on the 146.88 repeater in Birmingham. I waited at the top of the stairs to retrieve my 1 year old baby sleeping in her crib. Flash light in one hand and radio in the other I heard panic in the voice of some Hueytown Police officers as they urgently called out for information. "There is a tornado on the ground near Concord. I think its heading toward Pleasant Grove can anybody see!!". Silence followed. The storm spotters could see very little in the blackness of night. Shortly afterward reports of damage began to filter in. Not long afterward a shaky voice came on and announced. "There has been a touchdown in Edgewater,..... We need ambulance and rescue immediately". The same voice came soon afterward and said simply "Edgewater is Gone". The following morning the United States woke to see tornado devastation unlike any seen before. Whole communities were simply wiped out, or severely damaged. Oak Grove, Concord , Sylvan Springs, Edgewater, McDonalds Chapel, Pratt City. Its hard to judge which towns took the worst beating but Edgewater was essentially destroyed leaving only a few homes on the perimeter undamaged. All totaled over 30 people died that black and terrible night.
