May 11, 1950 - McMinnville, Oregon, USA

McMinnville, Oregon - May 11, 1950: Two of the most notorious UFO photos of all time were taken on a farm near Mcminnville by a farmer named Paul A. Trent. Beyond many such cases, these two photos have withstood the test of time--through generations of researchers. It could be said that this case specified the boiling point for the heated ongoing debate over what qualifies as physical evidence--at least when it comes to the subject of UFOs.

Mrs. Trent was outside getting finished feeding her rabbits, when she noticed the large, disc-shaped object approaching from the northeast. She called out to Mr. Trent who joined her to look at the mystery device. After a few moments, he went back in the house to get his camera. He got back out and picked a spot to stand and took the first picture, then wound the film for the next picture. (That was typically a time consuming process with a 1950 box camera.) Several minutes later, he took the other.

In the meantime, Mrs. Trent called out to her in-laws on their porch, about 400 feet away. They didn't hear her, so she ran into the house to call them on the telephone. Mrs. Trent's mother-in-law didn't get to see it because it disappeared by the time she was off of the phone, but Mrs. Trent's father-in-law did catch a glimpse of it just before it disappeared in the west.

Mr. Trent waited to finish the roll of film before he got the pictures developed. They were displayed nearly a month later in a local bank. (The Trents' banker worked there.) A reporter named Powell, who worked for the McMinnville Telephone Register, saw the photos and convinced the Trents to let him publish their story and photographs. However, it did take a bit of coaxing because the Trent's feared they might get in some kind of trouble with the government.

The photographs and story wound up in the June 26, 1950 issue of Life, who borrowed the negatives from Powell. The Trents didn't get the negatives back for another 17 years. They were requested for examination by the Condon investigation in the late 1960's, and after that analysis was done, they were finally sent back to Mr. Trent.

The first people to examine the negatives found no signs of manipulation of the negative and no visible means of support for the UFO pictured, and so it has remained, for over half a century. No scientific study of this case has ever revealed anything that contradicts the witnesses or their fortunate photos.