The Origins of the
Shire of Coppertree

Lady Caterina del Cavallo (Marjorie Brown) c. 1968.

ONCE upon a time there was an interesting woman who enjoyed going to science fiction conventions. At one of these, she met a gentleman who was a member of an oddball group called the Society for Creative Anachronism. The people in this group liked to dress up like people from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and pretend that they actually lived back then. The woman appreciated good-looking men in tights who liked to party, and she thought it might be a Good Thing to start an SCA group back home where she lived, to ensure a steady stream of the afore-mentioned good-looking men.

So the woman, who chose the SCA name of Caterina del Cavallo (because Italian Ren looks so damn good on women), started a local group. She decided to call it "Coppertree," because she lived in Rome, NY, the "Copper City;" where lots of beautiful trees grew, especially the flowering crabapple trees that bloomed in the spring, tra-la.

At first, Coppertree was a canton belonging to the Barony of Delftwood, in Syracuse. Baron Andre, Baroness Anastasia, and Friar Chuck of Delftwood were all friends of Caterina, and they had fun holding events and going to a nice camping event called Pennsic, where a few thousand people showed up every year.

But then some new people found out about the SCA and started coming to Coppertree and Delftwood events and fight practices. One of them was a fighter named Morguhn Sheridan. He had friends like Haakon Oaktall, Eleanor of Waldren, Rowan de la Garnison, Rhiannon the Curious, and Morgan Silverlocke.

Sir Morguhn Sheridan
(John Glenn)

Morguhn became a very good fighter very quickly. Thirteen months from his authorization as a fighter, he won the Crown of the East Kingdom for Rowan. Baron Andre was also a good fighter, but he was not as good as Morguhn, and so he grew jealous. Caterina was caught in the middle between her old friends and her new friends, and she suffered heart palpitations and had to take nitroglycerin tablets. It was very sad.

Finally Caterina had enough, and she petitioned the East Kingdom to get freedom for Coppertree. The canton split off from Delftwood and became a Shire, and has remained so ever since. Baron Andre and Baroness Anastasia eventually quit the SCA, and moved to San Antonio, Texas, where they eked out their income by making balloon animals on the Riverwalk for the tourists. Nobody knows what became of Friar Chuck.