May 11, 1950 — nr. McMinnville, OR
7:30 p.m. Evelyn Trent, who lives on a farm nine miles from McMinnville, Oregon [near Sheridan, Oregon], is walking back to her farmhouse after feeding rabbits. Before reaching the house, she sees a slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object heading in her direction from the northeast. She yells for her husband Paul, who is inside the house; he comes out and also sees the object. After a short time, he goes back inside to get a camera and manages to take two photos of the object before it speeds away to the west. Paul Trent’s father briefly sees the object before it flies away. The Trents assume they have seen some exotic military aircraft. They do not develop the film in the camera until they use it up and show the photos only to a few friends. Eventually it reaches the cover of Life magazine, but the Trents show no desire to make any money from the photos. Although the Colorado project initially thinks the photos seem genuine, three Interface Pilote pour l’Analyse de Clichés d’OVNIs researchers in 2013–2015 claim to find evidence of a model suspended from a string. Researcher Brad Sparks finds major mathematical and scientific errors in IPACO’s work. [Eberhart]
Sources:
“At Long Last—Authentic Photographs of Flying Saucer?” McMinnville (Oreg.) Telephone-Register, June 8, 1950, p. 1;
“‘Disc Picture’ Published in McMinnville Paper,” Salem (Ore.) Statesman Journal, June 9, 1950, p. 1;
“McMinnville Farmer, Wife See ‘Saucer’ Display Photographs to Prove Claim,” The Oregonian, June 10, 1950, p. 7;
The Salem (Ohio) News, June 13, 1950, p. 1;
“Yamhill Pictures Get Play in ‘Life’,” The Oregonian, June 23, 1950, p. 26;
“Farmer Trent’s Flying Saucer,” Life, June 26, 1950, p. 40;
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns Catalogue, Case 373, p. 90;
Ronald Story, The Encyclopedia of UFOs, pp. 223–226;
J Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report, pp. 244–245;
Edward Condon, Final report of the scientific study of unidentified flying objects conducted by the University of Colorado, pp. 396–407;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 3rd Ed., pp. 702–704;
Jerome Clark, The UFO Encyclopedia, 4th Ed., pp. 799–803;
Jerome Clark, UFO encounters: sightings, visitations, and investigations, 1992, p. 59;
Isaac Asimov, UFOs: Fact and Fantasy, 21st Century Library of the Universe edition, 2005, p. 18;
Isaac Asimov, UFOs: True Mysteries or Hoaxes, New Library of the Universe edition, 1995, pp. 18-19;
Greg Eghigian, After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon. Oxford University, 2024, pp. 67-68;
Wikipedia, “McMinnville UFO Photographs”;
“Farmer Trent’s Flying Saucer,” Life, June 26, 1950, p. 29;
https://files.afu.se/Magazines/0%20-%20Articles/United%20States/Life/1950%2006%2026_Life.pdf
NICAP, “Trent / McMinnville Photos”;
High Res Scans @ Internet Archive provided by Robert Sheaffer
Bruce S. Maccabee, “On the Possibility that the McMinnville Photos Show a Distant Unidentified Object (UO),” Proceedings of the 1976 CUFOS Conference, Center for UFO Studies, 1976, pp. 152–163;
http://cufos.org/books/Proceedings_of_the_1976_CUFOS_Conference.pdf#page=174
Bruce S. Maccabee, “The McMinnville Photos,” The Spectrum of UFO Research, CUFOS, 1988, pp. 13–57;
http://cufos.org/books/The_Spectrum_of_UFO_Research.pdf#page=27
Bruce S. Maccabee, “The Trent Farm Photos,” April 2000;
Bruce S. Maccabee, “The Trent Farm Photos Appendix,” April 2000;
Bruce S. Maccabee, “The McMinnville Photos,” May 2000;
Michael D. Swords, “Can We Learn Anything from UFO Photos? Part Five,” The Big Study, July 15, 2012;
Antoine Cousyn, François Louange, and Geoff Quick, “The McMinnville Pictures,” Interface Pilote pour l’Analyse de Clichés d’OVNIs, May 2014;
Brad Sparks rebuttal of the IPACO skeptical analysis
Sheaffer, Robert (10 September 2010). “The Trent UFO Photos McMinnville, Oregon - May 11, 1950”. The Debunker’s Domain.
“Condon Report, Photographic Case Studies: Cases 46 - 59”
John Killen, “Past Tense Oregon: UFO Photos Taken near McMinnville in 1950 Still Raise Questions,” Portland Oregonian, May 12, 2015;
Local UFO photos fascinated Air Force; farmer wanted to forget them: Throwback Thursday
J. J. Valdés, “The Trent/McMinnville UFO Photos: A Down-to-Earth Perspective,” Historical Inquiry, August 19, 2016;
“Paul and Evelyn Trent Talk about the Famous McMinnville UFO Sighting and Photographs from May 11, 1950,” Eyes on Cinema YouTube channel, June 26, 2023; [Dead Link, Copyright Struck, use Rumble link]
“McMinnville, OR CE-II Photo Case of 5-11-1950 – Mrs. Paul Trent,” Ufology: A Primer in Audio, 1938–1959, November 21, 2013;
“Oldest Most Authentic UFO Photos? McMinnville UFO and the Trent’s Photos,” Edge of Reality YouTube channel, December 7, 2024;
