The area around the Guadalupe River is home to dozens of summer camps, but it is Camp Mystic that was long favoured by the Texas elite.
For almost a century, the daughters of senators, presidents, and oil barons would stream through the gates each summer.
“The camp has always served as a near-flawless training ground for archetypal Texas women,” wrote Texas Monthly writer Mimi Swartz in a 2011 profile.
First Lady Laura Bush was a camp counsellor there during college, while President Lyndon B Johnson sent daughters and granddaughters through the green gates.
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Nicole Nugent Covert, granddaughter of Lady Bird and Lyndon B Johnson, described dropping her daughter off at Mystic.
“You get a feeling when you drive up to the Hill Country and you’d see the Mystic sign, and you’d feel the weight of the world had been lifted off you,” she told the Austin American-Statesman in 2010.
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“There were no worries. I still feel that way. When I drop my daughter off, I’m jealous.”
Once inside the Christian camp, hundreds of girls would learn to ride horses, catch fish, and hunt. They wore white on Sundays, when fried chicken was also served.
The halcyon summer days would culminate in a war-canoe race between two competing “tribes”.
A deposit for the camp cost $400 – while the current full fee is unknown in 2011 it cost $4,300 (£3,150) for a 30-day session.
Camp director dies ‘saving girls’
Founded in 1926, the camp was bought by Agnes Doran Stacy, a Dallas socialite, and her husband, Pop, in 1939, and has stayed in the family for the next three generations.
Mystic’s family bond came under pressure in 2011 when the Eastland siblings – grandchildren of Agnes – got into a messy legal battle over the 725-acre camp. The family eventually reached a confidential settlement in 2012.
Current director Dick Eastland, who ran the camp alongside his wife Tweety, has been confirmed dead by his grandson. George Eastland said his grandfather died trying to save the girls in his care when the flash floods suddenly hit.
At first, 27 of the camp’s girls were missing, their cabins swept away in waters that rose suddenly at 4am. That figure is now 11 – 10 campers and one counsellor.
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Renee Smajstrla, Eloise Peck, Janie Hunt and Lila Bonner are among those confirmed to have died.
“She will forever be living her best life at Camp Mystic,” Renee’s uncle, Shawn Salta, wrote in tribute to her.
The ‘Mystic mafia’ mourns
In her 2011 article, Swartz described a “Mystic mafia” of women that stretched across the world, their bonds forged by summers at camp.
And those legions of women are mourning today.
“Camp Mystic has been my safe haven for years – a place of peace, joy, and true belonging,” one wrote on social media.
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“It’s where light lives and God’s love overflows. A true slice of Heaven on earth. This weekend, tragedy has struck this sacred space, and my heart is shattered.”
“Mystic gave me more than I really know how to put into words. my heart breaks for the campers, staff, and their families in this impossible time,” another wrote.
