SOCORRO, New Mexico (STPNS) -- You may have seen them in pairs at New Mexico Tech’s athletic field Saturday afternoons, exchanging blows with fencing swords. Or set up in front of Fidel Center some late October day, dressed in Renaissance attire.

They’re not living in the past – only attempting to recreate it.

The Society for Creative Anachronism currently has about 20 members in Socorro, a town known to the organization as the College of St. Golias, the Crown College of the Kingdom of the Outlands.

Amy Trivitt-Kracke, a geology graduate of Tech, is the seneschal for the College of St. Golias, or the local group’s representative in the “outside world.” A seneschal, defined by Webster’s Dictionary as “an agent or steward in charge of a lord’s estate in feudal times,” is the chief administrative officer in a local group, similar to a club president.



Trivitt-Kracke said about half of the local group is made up of students and half is made up of people from the community, including Tech faculty. Her husband, Ray Kracke, also is an active member of SCA – the couple actually met through SCA. Ray said he got involved in the organization through a friend more than 10 years ago.

“I showed up to a meeting and the next thing I knew I was having fun, and I stayed with it,” Ray said.

Several years later, Ray met Amy through the organization. Amy said she had always been interested in the Middle Ages, so SCA was a good fit for her. She’s now been a member for 11 years and is currently enthralled with Elizabethan fashion.

SCA meets at 5:30 p.m. the first and third Wednesdays of every month at Fidel Center. Fighter practice is at about 1:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Tech Athletic Field.

“People are welcome to show up and ask questions,” Amy said, adding that potential fighters need safety training with the swords. “Until we judge that you are safe, we have someone with you at all times.”

Some SCA members practice archery at the Tech Amphitheater, but the schedule is not set in stone. Members also practice leather making, spinning, weaving and many other Medieval-era crafts.

“Basically, if it happened in the Middle Ages, we probably do it,” Ray said.

According to an SCA brochure titled “Forward Into the Past,” the non-profit organization was incorporated in 1968, but it recognizes May 1, 1966 – the date of a tournament in Berkeley, Calif. – as its founding date.

SCA is an educational organization dedicated to the study of pre-17th century Western culture, according to the brochure.

“It concentrates on the European Middle Ages … members work to recreate the arts and skills of the era,” the brochure states. “Some members study the Middle East and explore the interaction between Europe and Asia during the period under study.”

Fighting is the most visible activity in which the group takes part, and one of SCA’s largest events is a tournament-like battle called the Estrella War, which is “fought” in Florence, Ariz. The Estrella War is a week-long event in February in which different kingdoms compete for pennants in heavy combat, archery and arts and sciences.

The local SCA group is part of the Kingdom of the Outlands, which covers New Mexico, El Paso, Colorado, Wyoming and part of Nebraska. The international organization includes 19 kingdoms.

“Ray goes to the Estrella War. Most of our group goes,” Amy said, adding that she would have gone to the most recent Estrella War, but had to work.

Ray said the event includes hundreds of fighters from all over the United States.

New Mexico Tech senior John Russell, a physics major, said he got involved in SCA during his freshman year after a friend, named “Eoin” in SCA-speak, introduced him.

“Along with fighting, there are also the arts and sciences,” Russell said. “This covers a huge range of activities, some of which include blacksmithing, heraldry and weaving.”

Russell said he is more into the fighting aspect of SCA than the arts and sciences. He said he attended the Estrella War this year for the second time and participated in light fighter scenarios.

“Estrella is a good time to meet with people from other kingdoms who you haven’t seen for a while,” he said.

Russell said the first thing a prospective member should consider is whether he or she is a fan of the Middle Ages.

“If so, I would then ask what about the Middle Ages they like,” he said. “Odds are there is probably something in the SCA that would pique his or her interests.”

The College of St. Golias holds its Saint Golias Feast Day in October or November as one of its annual events. The other annual event is Southern War Practice, in which fighters prepare for the Estrella War, in January. The group also hosts a “welcome back” event for new and returning Tech students every fall, as well as a farewell event.

The local group is referred to as a Crown College because it is not associated with a barony, canton or shire and its officers report directly to their kingdom superiors.

According to its Web site, Saint Golias is the oldest college in the Kingdom of the Outlands and one of the oldest registered colleges in the “Knowne World.”

Webster’s Dictionary defines “anachronism” as “a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially: one from a former age that is incongruous in the present.”

According to the SCA brochure, “‘creative anachronism’ takes the best qualities of the Middle Ages and selectively re-creates them in the modern world.”

The local group was founded around 1980. Ray said there is one primary reason to recreate the the Middle Ages.

“Even in today’s society, you can find a group of people who value honor and chivalry,” Ray said.