Camp Mystic will not reopen this summer after withdrawing state license application

From KUT News:

Camp Mystic, the private Christian girls’ summer camp where 28 people died during last July’s flooding in the Hill Country, will not reopen this summer after withdrawing its license renewal application for summer 2026.

“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 a statement on Thursday.

“Rather than risk defending our rights under Texas law in a manner that may unintentionally effect further harm, we choose rather to withdraw our application for the 2026 camp season.”

Last week, the Texas Department of State Health Services notified Camp Mystic its license to operate may not be renewed unless it made major revisions to its emergency plan.

State health officials told lawmakers Tuesday the camp is also under an internal investigation after hundreds of complaints were filed against it following the deaths of 27 girls and counselors last summer, as well as the death of one of the camp’s directors. The camp has said it is cooperating with investigators.

“The DSHS continues working with the Texas Rangers to investigate Camp Mystic. The results of that investigation will be made public as soon as possible,” Gov. Greg Abbott said in statement Thursday.

Some of the families of the victims don’t see this as a benevolent act.

“What the Eastlands offered today was not accountability. It was not out of respect for our grieving families. Nor because they wanted to do the next right thing,” wrote Cici and Will Steward in a statement Thursday afternoon.

Their daughter, Cile Steward, is still missing after the floods last July.

“We have pled with them to stop since September. It was a calculated exit from a license they were about to lose. The Eastland family withdrew their license to operate before the State of Texas yanked it from them,” the Stewards said in their statement.

The withdrawal of Camp Mystic’s application doesn’t impact the ongoing legal efforts by attorneys representing the affected families.

Kyle Findley, a lawyer for six of the families whose girls died, said the decision is “long overdue.”

In a statement to KUT News, Findley noted that while Camp Mystic will not operate this summer, the families will continue pursuing justice through the courts. Their goal remains a full investigation, greater transparency, accountability, and preventing a similar tragedy from happening again, he said.

Attorneys also emphasized that serious questions about the July 4 incident remain unanswered.

“Until there is full accountability for what happened on July 4 and until there are real, enforceable safeguards for every child sent to a Texas summer camp, our work continues,” attorney Sam Taylor, who represents the six families of girls who died in the floods, told KUT News in an email.

This is a developing story.

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