Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Edward Helmore in Kerr county, Texas

Texas’s Camp Mystic was ‘a place of joy’. Floods turned it into a site of great loss

A building with 'Camp Mystic' written just under its roof visible through a gap in trees.
View of Camp Mystic's central gathering space, the Recreation Hall, surrounded by damaged structures and fallen trees. Photograph: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images

The loss of 27 campers and counsellors from Camp Mystic to the Texas Hill Country flood may serve, at a terrible cost, to expand its considerable reputation across Texas and beyond. Even as the floods claimed more lives along the valley – at least 120 confirmed dead and 160 people unaccounted for as of Tuesday – the loss of several “Mystic Girls” has dominated the headlines.

The camp, which offers two four-week terms and one two-week term over the summer, has been the go-to summer camp for daughters of Texans for nearly a century. It’s so popular that fathers have been known to call the registrar to get their daughters on the list from the delivery room.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.