By Kirk Dooley
Over the past 99 years, Camp Mystic, the Christian girls summer camp on the banks of the Guadalupe River near Kerrville, has hosted thousands of girls from 7 to 17 years old.
Hundreds of them are from the Park Cities.
Many of this year’s 750 campers have mothers and grandmothers who spent their summers at the camp. Like several other Texas Hill County summer camps, Camp Mystic has deep traditions that run through several generations of girls becoming young women.
Most campers, counselors, and alums of Camp Mystic are quick to point out that the greatest tradition of the camp has been Dick and Tweety Eastland and their sons.
Dick’s grandmother, Agnes Stacy, was the first camp director after she bought the camp in 1939. The camp had been there for 13 years, and she changed the name to Camp Mystic, for the Guadalupe’s morning mist. Dick and Tweety took over the camp in 1987.
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Dick was swept away by the raging flood waters of July 4 as he tried to save his young campers. Tears and shock echoed around the world as the news broke of a Texas girls camp losing 27 campers and counselors to a massive flash flood. More than 130 people died that day and as of mid-July, at least 100 were still missing.
Ginna Klein, a Highland Park High School graduate, said the Eastland family and their camp helped mold her into the woman she is today. She was a camper for nine years before serving as a counselor for all three summer terms until Covid changed the world.
Klein was so inspired by the impact her counselors had on her life — and the difference she knew she made in young girls’ lives as their counselor — that she is now a licensed professional counselor at BasePoint Academy in Forney. Basepoint offers individualized holistic mental and behavioral treatment for teens.
“I grew up with two older brothers and going to Camp Mystic helped me to learn to relate to girls,” Klein said. “I made lifelong connections during each summer. I watched the Eastland family live within their faith. I gained independence being outdoors, exploring, playing, developing structure, and gaining independence while figuring out life on my own. Most importantly, I learned the Camp Mystic ideals of Be Kind, Let Camp Mystic Bring Out the Best in Me, and Grow Spiritually.”
Brandy Barbour Morrison, a former camper and counselor said, “Camp Mystic is more than a place to me. I am who I am because of my 12 summers spent there. I am thankful for the friendships made and the lessons learned. I love Camp Mystic and am heartbroken for all affected by the July Fourth floods.”
The Camp Mystic family is numerous and worldwide. The education and development that campers have learned at camp has translated into an army of women in Texas and beyond who excel as successful mothers, wives, business leaders, educators, and volunteers. And friends.
When Camp Mystic marks its 100th anniversary next summer, it will have the family of Dick Eastland running the camp.
Dick’s wife, Tweety, and their sons Richard, Britt and Edward and their wives and children all live at the camp and will circle the wagons and try to get past the unthinkable tragedy that overcame their world on July Fourth.
And supporting them in the background will be many Mystic women of all ages from the Park Cities, across Texas and throughout the nation who stand Mystic Strong.
