Camp Mystic, the 99-year-old Christian summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River, has for years given girls a place to be themselves, former campers say.
Now, the popular all-girls camp set among limestone hills 80 miles northwest of San Antonio is the site of an unfolding tragedy. After rapidly rising flood waters swept through the area over the holiday weekend, 27 girls were missing from the camp as desperate parents posted pleas for help online. More than two dozen people have died in the area, including Richard "Dick" Eastland, an owner of Camp Mystic.
During the past two days, camp alumnae have rapidly shared information through group chats, struggling to understand how this could have happened at a place they thought of as a refuge.
"It's my favorite place in the entire world," said Lauren Garcia, a former camper who is now a physician assistant in New York City. "It really is like just a safe haven. I've never experienced anything like it."
Garcia describes foggy morning horseback rides, competitive canoe races and riverside lessons on fishing, as hundreds of girls disconnected from the outside world.
The camp has for nearly 100 years offered 30-day programs to improve the spirituality and self-confidence of girls. Generations of families have passed through the Camp Mystic's valleys. Garcia's mother, aunts and sister all stayed in the numerous camp housing facilities with names like Twins, Bubble Inn, Gigglebox and Chatterbox.
Campers spent Sundays doing religious readings near the river before holding a small service on Chapel Hill, a nearby ridge with a cross overlooking the valley.
"We don't know what will happen to it," said Shelby Patteson, a University of Virginia fundraiser who attended the camp for eight years. "There is a mourning for what happened, a mourning for what we still don't know and all the girls they still haven't found, but also an extreme mourning for the special place that you know may not exist past this."
The camp boasts of helping girls make lifelong friendships, barred from using social media and cellphones for the duration. Garcia spoke of a recent dinner held in New York City for alumnae. Two women in Patterson's recent wedding were camp friends.
The camp has been so sought after that women speak about friends signing up their daughters for the wait list as soon as they are born.
Austinite Kim Barnes was a Mystic camper, as were her mother and her daughter. The family's time there spanned 70 years. Barnes and her daughter have been texting back and forth since news of the missing girls broke Friday.
"My daughter was sending me some pictures of her as a camper — the same age as some of the little girls who are missing, and it just brings me to my knees," Barnes said.
Camp Mystic has for generations hosted some of Texas' political elite. Laura Bush was a camp counselor there. Texas Gov. John Connolly sent his daughter there, as did LBJ and his daughters, according to a Texas Monthly piece.
"Lady Bird Johnson used to come to camp closing [ceremonies] when she was very elderly," Patterson said.
The camp was formed in 1926 and has operated as a camp for girls since then. It was briefly leased by the U.S. government as a convalescent space for servicemembers after World War II. It has been owned and operated by the Eastland family.
Tweety and Dick Eastland are spoken of with reverence by past campers, and were seen nearly every day teaching or roaming the grounds, even after handing over many of the reins to other family members. Tweety taught baking and is known for her "infamous" cookies. Dick taught fishing to younger campers, and former campers described him as a caring, grandfatherly figure.
"I caught a fish, and he'd hug you," Garcia said. She recalls him taking a picture, "and he would say, 'Put it closer to the camera, make it look real big.'"
"It's just beyond heartbreaking," Patterson said of Eastland's death. Not every older man "needs to impart his wisdom or give time to a gaggle of girls, and it's just so special that he chose to spend his life that way."
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told the media that 750 campers were at Camp Mystic when the flooding started.
When The Texas Newsroom reached out to Cathy Eastland, one of the directors of the camp, she broke down on the phone crying, unable to speak about the past 48 hours.
Patterson's younger sister was a counselor last year and had been interested in going back this year to be a counselor, but didn't while many of her friends did.
"It's been a rough Fourth of July. … I think people are just desperate for information."
It isn't clear what remains of the camp, which had some housing areas adjacent to the river, but for campers like Patterson, the camp will always be a foundational piece of their lives.
"And it was such a gift to be able to go to such a beautiful place and unplug with your best friends every year, something I'll always hold with me."
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