Camp Mystic was the totemic rite of passage for girls from establishment families in the American South: Lyndon Johnson sent his daughters there, Laura Bush worked there as a counselor years before becoming First Lady, and its alumni include the children of at least three Texas governors.
It evoked such a potent mix of nostalgia, tradition, religious faith and camaraderie that parents rushed to get their daughter’s name on its coveted waiting list as soon as she was born. But after the deadliest floods in Texas history ripped through Mystic and killed 27 campers and