At least 27 children and staff from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp in the Texas Hill Country, died over the holiday weekend in a catastrophic flash flood that killed nearly 90 people. Another 10 campers and staffers remain missing.
Before the flood, however, Camp Mystic was known among Texas’s elite as an idyllic destination for young girls, what Texas Monthly once described as a “near-flawless training ground for archetypal Texas women.”
Accepting girls as young as 8 years-old, Camp Mystic advertises itself as a “wholesome Christian atmosphere” where girls “can develop outstanding personal qualities and self-esteem.”
The camp’s tuition for its four-week summer sessions cost $4,375 in 2011, according to a Texas Monthly report. It has the clientele—and the history—to go with its massive price tag. For the last eight decades, Camp Mystic has been a destination for the state’s political elite.
President Lyndon B. Johnson sent both of his daughters, Lynda, 81, and Luci, 78, to summer sessions in the 1950s, starting a family tradition that continued for three generations. Lynda and Luci’s daughters and granddaughters later attended the camp, Texas Monthly reports.
Three Texas governors, Dan Moody, John Connally, and Price Daniel, all sent their daughters to Camp Mystic between the 1930s and 1960s. At the same time, future First Lady Laura Bush served as a camp counselor while attending Southern Methodist University in the mid-’60s.
Though Bush’s daughters did not attend, Jenna Bush Hager said Monday that many of her family friends “were raised at this camp,” and many had their children in sessions there as recently as last week.
James Baker, who served as Secretary of State, Treasury Secretary, and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Reagan and Bush, also sent his daughter to Camp Mystic. His granddaughter, SNL writer and comedian Rosebud Baker, was a second-generation camper.
Responding to news of the flooding on Threads Monday, Rosebud Baker wrote, “This was my summer camp. I have family friends missing their daughters. Please please donate to the flood relief efforts, and if you do pray, please pray for their safe return. This is devastating.”
Originally founded in 1926, Camp Mystic in its current form came to be in 1939, when it was purchased by Agnes “Ag” Stacy, the socialite daughter of a wealthy Dallas banker.
Stacy, a passionate advocate for women’s sports, envisioned the camp as a destination where young, wealthy girls could develop as both athletes and debutantes. Early iterations of the camp included sessions on posture and “charm” alongside swimming and horseback riding.
For the nine decades since, girls between the ages of 8 and 17 have spent their month in the Hill Country trying everything from athletic activities like archery, kayaking, lacrosse, synchronized swimming, and golf to crafting, ceramics, and cooking.
Like many camps in the area, Camp Mystic was faith-based. Campers participated in a Bible study course, while counselors led daily devotionals in the cabins. Camp Mystic also banned electronics, though there is little cell service in the region to begin with.
It’s not uncommon for multiple generations of the same family to attend the camp. Former campers look back fondly at memories of a “safe haven” with “foggy morning horseback rides, competitive canoe races and riverside lessons on fishing, as hundreds of girls disconnected from the outside world,” as one alum told Texas Public Radio.
The family behind Camp Mystic is nearly as storied as their elite campers. Its founder, Stacy, was a close friend of Anne Morgan, daughter of JP Morgan. As Texas Monthly reports, Stacy developed her philosophy for the camp while traveling to France with the heiress after WWI, where the pair developed a similar program for children dealing with post-war trauma.
Before the flood on July 4, Camp Mystic had long been in the hands of Dick Eastland, the grandson of Agnes Stacy who assumed control in 1987, a few years after his grandmother’s death.
Dick Eastland died Friday while attempting to rescue campers from the rising floodwaters. Writing his eulogy for the Kerrville Daily Times, his friend and former camper Paige Sumner said, “It doesn’t surprise me at all that his last act of kindness and sacrifice was working to save the lives of campers. He had already saved so many lives with the gift of Camp Mystic.”
