COLORADO COUNTY, TEXAS — Camp Oak Haven, a Christian youth camp in Colorado County, Texas, will not reopen this summer after Orr Family Ministries sold its 12-acre campground because it could not meet new safety regulations imposed on Texas youth camps by the state Legislature. The camp had served about 100 children from surrounding low-income and rural communities, offering swimming, worship by a fire pit, and Bible lessons.

The Texas Legislature imposed new safety requirements on youth camps following the July 4, 2005 Hill Country floods, which killed 27 children and counselors at Camp Mystic. The requirements include weather warning systems, fiber-optic internet, and higher licensing fees. Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 1, passed during the second special session of the 89th Texas Legislature, were signed and held up by Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Charles Perry, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Representative Drew Darby at the Governor's Mansion on September 5, 2025.

Camp Oak Haven officials contacted multiple internet providers, all of which said installing fiber was not possible due to the camp's remote location. A preliminary study by the Christian Camps and Conference Association found that at least 173 Texas camps lack fiber access.

"We are sad. It's terrible. We had church groups coming, and we had to give back deposits, and I don't know where those kids will go," said Cynthia Royal, board president of Orr Family Ministries. "The dent is in these rural communities where kids or parents don't have huge incomes to send them to a huge mega camp miles away."

Royal also said, "Lawmakers threw out a blanket rule for all camps across the entire state without taking realistic things into consideration. How far away from water are you? How urban are you? How rural are you? None of that was considered."

In April, a group of 19 Texas camps filed a lawsuit challenging the fiber-optic internet requirement as unconstitutional and potentially preventing them from opening. The Texas Department of State Health Services reached an agreement with the camps to drop the requirement temporarily, and camps that maintain at least two ways of accessing broadband internet can be licensed this summer if they meet other safety requirements. High licensing fees, an inspection backlog, emergency plan rewrites, and structural requirements in floodplains continue to threaten some youth camps.

Compared to December, 66 camps no longer appear on the state's most recent roster of active camps. The state currently licenses 316 camps and has approved 47 new camp applications for summer operations. Previously licensed camps have reduced their hours of operation to avoid state licensing and higher fees, urban camps are scaling back activities, and rural camps are closing due to uncertainty about the regulations.

Chris Stephens, a minister at Ave. G Church of Christ in Temple, said his children will not attend camp this summer because there are few options in their remote area. "My family didn't take vacations. We went to camp. We viewed it as that important." Stephens said the family received letters from camps in Louisiana and Arkansas but could not afford to send their youth that far away, and that most vacation Bible schools ended after COVID-19 and last only one day.