Texas’ Camp Mystic To Partially Reopen Next Summer
Camp Mystic, a Christian girls camp where 27 campers and counselors died in the July 4 flooding along the Guadalupe River in Texas, has said it plans to host camps next summer.
The owners announced this week that they plan to open Camp Mystic Cypress Lake to campers in the summer of 2026. The elevated Cypress Lake section of the campground opened in 2020 and operates independently from the older Guadalupe River camp, which was severely damaged by the floods.
“We continue to evaluate plans to rebuild Camp Mystic Guadalupe River,” camp officials said. “Our planning and procedures will reflect the catastrophic 1,000-year weather event that occurred on July 4, including never having campers return to cabins that had floodwaters inside them. And, as at Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, our plans will comply with the requirements of the new camp safety.”
According to ABC News, camp leaders said they will be designing and building a memorial “dedicated to the lives of the campers and counselors lost on July 4th.” Camp Director Dick Eastland also died when he was reportedly trying to save campers from the flood waters.
“We hope this space will serve as a place of reflection and remembrance of these beautiful girls,” the camp’s statement read. “We continue to pray for the grieving families and all those who lost loved ones.”
Some of the families whose children died in the floods do not support Camp Mystic’s plans, NBC News reported.
“For my family, these months have felt like an eternity. For the camp, it seems like nothing more than a brief pause before business as usual,” Cici Steward said in a statement to The New York Times. Her daughter Cile still has not been found.
“Camp Mystic is pressing ahead with reopening, even if it means inviting girls to swim in the same river that may potentially still hold my daughter’s body,” Steward added.
Blake Bonner, father of 8-year-old flood victim Lila Bonner, said the victim’s families “were not consulted about and did not approve this memorial.”
Camp Mystic, which has operated along the Guadalupe River since 1926, says it is working to comply with the new safety requirements passed by the Texas legislature this summer.
“We are working to implement new safety protocols and other changes that comply with the requirements of the recently passed camp safety legislation, the Heaven’s 27 Camp Safety Act,” Camp Mystic said. “We will share more details as they become available in the coming weeks.”
The legislation requires safety features such as prohibiting cabins in flood plains, requiring operable weather alert radios in each cabin, installing emergency warning systems, and conducting safety orientations with campers at the beginning of each camp session.
Michael McCown, who lost his 8-year-old daughter Linnie in the floods, testified in favor of the legislation.
“We trusted Camp Mystic with her precious life, but that trust was broken in the most devastating way,” McCown said. When the camp took action, he said, it was “too little, too late.”
The Uvalde Foundation for Kids announced its support for the Camp Mystic partial reopening and pledged $15,000 toward camp safety and preparedness and full tuition and travel assistance to the immediate siblings and children of the 27 victims of the July floods. The Uvalde Foundation was formed after the tragic shooting of children at Robb Elementary School in 2022.
“We recognize and honor the raw emotion and the profound grief that this reopening brings,” Daniel Chapin, the foundation’s founder said in a press statement. “This decision is not about forgetting; it is an act of sheer resiliency for the Eastland family to build a monumental legacy from the rubble of tragedy. The light of those 27 lives will forever inspire the purpose and safety of this camp.”
This article was originally published at MinistryWatch.
Kim Roberts is a freelance writer who holds a Juris Doctorate with honors from Baylor University and an undergraduate degree in government from Angelo State University. She has three young adult children who were home schooled and is happily married to her husband of 28 years.