Camp Mystic on Thursday said it has withdrawn its application for an operating license, a decision that means it will not reopen to campers this summer.
The decision follows a grueling hearing earlier this week when Texas lawmakers pushed the family that runs the camp to consider if they were truly ready to reopen after 25 campers and two counselors died there during last year’s July 4 flood, along with the camp’s executive director Dick Eastland. Family members of the girls who died also spoke passionately to the camp directors in that hearing about their loss.
“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” the camp said in its statement.
Camp Mystic had planned to welcome back more than 800 girls to a portion of its property that was away from the hardest-hit areas where people died. The camp said girls would be safe there and it wanted to continue its mission.
“We are grateful that no child will be placed in the Eastlands’ care this summer,” CiCi and Will Steward, whose daughter Cile’s body still has not been found, said in a written statement.
They added that the camp’s decision did not amount to accountability in their eyes.
“It was not out of respect for our grieving families. Nor because they wanted to do the next right thing,” the statement said. “We have pled with them to stop since September. It was a calculated exit from a license they were about to lose.”
Camp Mystic has a 100-year history in the state, with generations of women from the same families going to the camp along the winding Guadalupe River in Kerr County.
People rallied to its defense in the aftermath of the flood, which killed more than 100 people in Kerr County when it tore through vacation homes, RV parks and other structures.
But the families who lost children demanded accountability and change. Many of them lobbied state lawmakers to pass reforms aimed at making camps safer — resulting in new laws requiring camps to have robust emergency plans, to install emergency warning systems and to evacuate flood-prone buildings when flash flood warnings are issued.
The Stewards filed a lawsuit against Camp Mystic and sought to keep the property shut so evidence could be preserved; a judge agreed that the portion of the camp where girls died would remain closed.
Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, meanwhile, repeatedly called on the Texas Department of State Health Services not to renew the camp’s license application. The department reviewed the camp’s new emergency plan and recently found it deficient in multiple areas, which the agency said was common across the state as camps worked to come into compliance with the new laws.
Camp Mystic still had time to fix those errors if it had decided to reopen. The agency and the Texas Rangers are also investigating complaints about the camp’s care of children, while the camp also faces additional lawsuits.
At the two-day hearing on Monday and Tuesday, members of the Eastland family listened to a state investigator walk through how the camp had failed to plan and train counselors to evacuate cabins during floods, and how their chaotic evacuation attempts began too late, resulting in counselors passing campers through windows to escape the rushing water.
In emotional testimony, Edward Eastland, who directed the portion of the camp where girls died, apologized to the families for the camp’s failures.
The Eastlands then faced hours of questioning from lawmakers, including pointed questions about whether they would keep operating. Edward Eastland’s wife, Mary Liz Eastland, said the family would be willing to “step back and take a pause” if it meant the camp could keep going.
After the camp’s announcement on Thursday, Patrick in a social media post said he felt thankful to hear of the Eastland’s choice. Gov. Greg Abbott in a statement said his heart was with the families of those who died.
“We never imagined a world without our daughters, and no decision made now can change that,” said Matthew Childress, whose daughter Chloe, a Camp Mystic counselor, died. “As Camp Mystic steps back, we step forward — with an unshakable commitment to remembrance, to accountability, and to ensuring our daughters’ lives leave a lasting impact that protects others.”
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
Photo: Camp Mystic in Hunt on July 9, 2025. The camp announced that it will withdraw its application to renew its operating license. Ronaldo Bolaños/The Texas Tribune
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