In the fall of 1942, a group of campers envisioning a more vibrant camp program, began meeting to revitalize it.  The small group grew to thirty-five, who unveiled a program of training in spiritual development, language study, and culture appreciation.  They ordered books, identified instructors, began courses in elementary German, and mapped out a plan for a study of central Europe, including the arts, political, sociological and spiritual development.  They planned to offer advanced German and French.  Interested in post-war relief effort, the men felt it important to embark on this course, even though the AFSC had not been able to secure clearance for CPS men to serve in foreign relief and reconstruction.  The January 11, 1943 issue of Calumet, the camp newspaper, outlined the program, and Jim Mattocks presented the rationale for effective foreign relief and reconstruction. 

Those who have done relief work tell us that the most important thing that these starving, bitter people need is human kindness and love.  Surely the foundation of a stable world of peace and brotherhood cannot be built on food and blankets alone, without some unifying bond of human understanding.

This need can be met by C.P.S. where we are free of hate complexes and war hysteria.  There is no assurance that any of us can go abroad.  But if we can in some way develop greater spiritual resources and insight, they will be of tremendous value in our lives anywhere. . . . (p. 2)

The men received encouragement from AFSC’s Douglas Steere, who visited the camp as the program was forming.  John Swomley, from the Fellowship of Reconciliation (F.O.R.), who helped revive the F.O. R. meetings at the camp, also supported the changes. 

The F.O.R. group at Buck Creek petitioned AFSC to accept blood donations from local campers for use by Friends Ambulance units in Europe and other countries. 

In early 1943, men in the AFSC camps circulated a petition urging the Federal Government to compensate CPS men for their “work of national importance”.  “Declaring that Congress itself had no intention of establishing slave labor for conscientious objectors, the petition cites Public Law 630, which provides that CPS men could be paid at rates not to exceed Army base pay.”  In a poll at Buck Creek, seventy-nine percent of the men voted in favor of compensation, and “blasted the idea that CPS men are anxious to work for nothing.”  The newspaper included quotes from a dozen or so Buck Creek men interviewed as part of the poll. (Calumet February 10, 1943 pp.1, 3, 4)

R. D. Nanney, who served as cartoonist for the camp paper, wrote a column critiquing the implications of a church-administered C.O. program responsible to the government.  In his view, men should have volunteered “to serve society in the Friends pattern” rather than being offered a choice to go to CPS to avoid jail. (p. 2)

In late spring 1943, life at the camp began to wind down, as the camp was to close and be moved to Gatlinburg, Tennessee to fight forest fires.  By early May, forty-three men from Buck Creek had gone to open the Gatlinburg camp to be called Camp Rufus Jones, in honor of the early Friends leader.  The final issue of Calumet reported that the recreation facilities would be far better than at Buck Creek, but that Ranger Smith of the National Park Service was very concerned to lose the effective Buck Creek fire crews.

Three men had been selected to serve as smoke jumpers in Montana.  Bryn Hammerstrom, Harry Burks and Paul Jernigan were to report to Lake Seeley by mid- May.

In addition to Calumet, which began October 1941, the men published The Sphere from April through September of 1942. The men described it as

. . .a frontierless adventure on the part of a few members of this community, who have envisioned the possibilities of a definite means of expressing latent thoughts and emotions.  It is felt that such an adventure may offer each member of the camp an opportunity to explore the imaginative realm beyond the limitations of his every day experience.

J. T. McMullen and Franklin Kelley compiled the No. 1, April 1942 issue.