Paul and Evelyn Trent photograph a disc-shaped object near McMinnville, Oregon
May 11, 1950 · Trent farm, between Sheridan and McMinnville, Oregon · Sighting · Primary document linked
On the evening of 11 May 1950, at about 7:30 pm, Evelyn Trent saw a bright, metallic, disc-shaped object near the family farm between Sheridan and McMinnville, Oregon, and her husband Paul took two photographs in quick succession. A friend urged him to take them to the local paper, and both pictures ran on the front page of the McMinnville Telephone-Register on 8 June 1950. Portland and Los Angeles papers followed, and Life published the photos later that month. In the 1960s the Air Force-funded Condon Committee studied the negatives (investigator William K. Hartmann). It found no sign of tampering and called this one of the few cases where the geometric, psychological and physical evidence all fit the witnesses' account, but it did not rule out a hoax.
Why it matters (4/5)
Two photographs that the Air Force-funded Condon Committee examined in detail and could not show to be faked.
Caveats
The Condon Report says the evidence does not positively rule out fabrication. In both photos the object sits under the same point of an overhead wire, and the report could not exclude a small model hanging from it. Its distance estimate is uncertain by about a factor of four, the lighting does not fit the stated time well, and the committee interviewed the witnesses 17 years after the event. Skeptics have suggested a model or a household object; defenders say the photos are genuine, and the question has never been settled. The Blue Book file was not opened.
Video and images
- Trent photograph no. 1 as published by LIFE, 26 Jun 1950 (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)
- Trent photograph no. 1, high-resolution negative scan (Photo, Wikimedia Commons)
Sources
- Condon Report, Case 46: McMinnville, Oregon, 11 May 1950 (University of Colorado, for the U.S. Air Force), primary
- McMinnville, Yamhill County; 1950 (Offbeat Oregon), context