Original headline: Seeking the undiscovered
Dallas Tanner looks the part of a Bigfoot hunter — grizzled, tanned, ruggedly dressed.
But he doesn't hunt anything that involves going outside, he cheerfully admits.
His hunting is done over the Internet, his glee over sightings of Bigfoot, a Thunderbird or lake monsters celebrated in the comfort of his home office in Greer's Silverleaf subdivision, witnessed only by his cat, Samwise, companionably draped over his computer monitor.
Tanner's preference for the indoors hasn't hampered his plunge into cryptozoology, the study of "hidden" or undiscovered animals. It's not a recognized, degree-granting field of study, such as its respectable relatives zoology, anthropology or paleontology. Indeed, dabbling in it can wreck a career, Tanner said.
That's because the tame part of it — such as discovering the long-thought-extinct coelacanth fish off the coast of South Africa — is overshadowed by the far-out part of it — searching for the Loch Ness Monster.
But cryptozoology, at least for now, isn't Tanner's livelihood. It's his hobby.
And with last year's publication of his novel, "Shadow of the Thunderbird," and upcoming books on Bigfoot and the Altamaha-ha in Georgia's Altamaha River, he is on the cutting edge of a new genre called "cryptofiction."
Greenville Technical College, which was searching for an adventure story without obscenity or graphic sex, selected "Thunderbird" for its critical reading classes to study this year alongside "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie.
"We wanted something to appeal to the younger generation, like sci-fi, mystery and intrigue," said Phyllis Beveliaque, Tech's reading instructor, who learned of the book when she met Tanner's wife at a wedding. "Once I got it and read it, 'I thought, this is a really good book.'"
The bonus: She got Tanner as a guest lecturer.
Computer specialist
Tanner, an affable, 46-year-old Mormon, does most of his research and writing late at night, when his wife and five children are asleep. By day, his job is just about as rare as his hobby: He's an electronic commerce specialist who sets up computer language systems for companies dealing internationally. He has worked for BMW and IBM, and is currently an independent contractor for BMW supplier ZF Lemforder.
Serendipitously, his mastery of computers has aided him greatly in his more recent interest in the creatures of folklore.
"There are basically three areas of what you would consider the paranormal," he explained: UFOs, the supernatural, and cryptozoology.
"I guess I never felt comfortable with the notion of flying saucers or ghosts, because as Christians, we look at it with the question, 'Where is God in all this?' But I can appreciate the fact that he had some animals on the ark we haven't seen in some time."
Tanner isn't sure whether creatures such as the Thunderbird — or for that matter, nearby "Messie" in Lake Murray or "Normie" in Lake Norman — exist. But he is intrigued when sightings run through different generations and cultures.
For instance, there are at least two dozen names among American Indians for Thunderbird — a 6-foot-tall bird with a 20-to-25-foot wingspan.
Because the tribes "lived in so many different places and spoke so many different dialects, how did they come up with the same stories for these giant birds?" he asked. "And so, what I did, in putting cryptozoology together with fiction ... is say, 'OK, if these Native American legends have some basis in reality, what bird would explain the sightings?'"
His fictional answer: Argentavis magnificens, a dinosaur-era flying creature with a 25-foot wingspan whose remains were discovered in Argentina in 1980.
It's not that Tanner believes that such animals have survived ... exactly.
"I enjoy the possibility that these things are out there," he said. "It makes the world less mundane.
"But as far as mounting an expedition or traveling on one, I am literally like Ian McQuade (his fictional hero). I don't like sleeping on the ground. I don't want to be the one out there hearing strange noises or having to run three-quarters of a mile back to my car."
After Ian's adventures in "Thunderbird," published by Booklocker Inc. of Bangor, Maine, he will reappear in "Track of the Bigfoot" then "Wake of the Lake Monster."
In "Lake Monster," he will pursue the Altamaha-ha in neighboring Georgia.
"This thing has been reported for over 200 years," Tanner said. "It supposedly swims from the ocean, up the Altamaha River to Smith Lake. There are dozens of sightings a year."
Lake Murray
Like his more hands-on monster-hunting colleagues, Tanner can't make a living at cryptozoology yet.
But he's expanding his reach.
He recently founded the South Carolina Cryptozoological Society, an organization of folks interested in investigating sightings and swapping information about undiscovered creatures.
One of the group's first projects, Tanner hopes, will be to launch a one-day, no-camping-involved boat trip to perform depth soundings to find "Messie," Lake Murray's answer to Scotland's "Nessie."
"Again, it's not a question of saying, 'We want to go and find something,'" Tanner said. "We just want to have that less-mundane experience of spending the day together out on the lake for no other reason than we might happen to find something."
He's also planned a daylong conference Nov. 8 with well-known speakers in the field, including anthropologist Loren Coleman, perhaps the most prolific cryptozoological lecturer and investigator.
The public is invited to hear the likes of Joshua Warren, founder of a paranormal investigations team that has tackled the Pink Lady of Asheville's Grove Park Inn, and Mike McCurry, who will bring three-dimensional models inspired by Bigfootprints.
For Tanner, it will be a chance to meet fans who've discovered him on the Internet — such as the Pennsylvania motorist who reported a massive bird stepping into the road near Valley Forge. The Philadelphia Zoo, the University of Pennsylvania and local television stations couldn't provide the man with an explanation.
Tanner was happy to give him ... a possibility.
