McMinnville UFO photographs

The McMinnville UFO photographs, also known as the Trent UFO photos, were two photographs of a purported UFO taken on May 11, 1950 by a farming couple, Paul and Evelyn Trent near McMinnville, Oregon, United States. The photos were reprinted in Life magazine and in newspapers across the nation and are often considered to be among the most famous and clearest photographs ever taken of a UFO.^[1] Most UFO skeptics consider these photographs a hoax, although many ufologists continue to argue that the photos actually depict a genuine three dimensional unidentified flying object in the sky.^[2]

Although these images have become known as the "McMinnville UFO Photographs", the Trent farm was actually just outside Sheridan, Oregon, approximately nine miles (15 km) southwest of McMinnville, which was the nearest larger town.^[3]

According to astronomer William K. Hartmann's account, on May 11, 1950 at 7:30 p.m., Evelyn Trent was walking back to her farmhouse after feeding her caged rabbits. Before reaching the house, she noticed a slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object heading in her direction from the northeast.^[3] She yelled for her husband, Paul, who was inside the house; he claimed that upon leaving the house, he also saw the object. After watching the object for a short time, he went back inside their home to obtain a camera; he said he managed to take two photos of the object before it sped away to the west. Paul Trent's father also claimed he briefly viewed the object before it flew away.^[3]

Hartmann's version of the incident traces back to an interview the Trents gave to Lou Gillette, host of the radio station KMCM (later KLYC), and quoted in The Oregonian newspaper on June 10, 1950. The Trent's retelling of the alleged incident remained generally consistent until their deaths in the late 1990s,^[4] except for one notably different version of the sighting given to the local McMinnville newspaper soon after it occurred. In that version, Evelyn Trent stated "We'd been out in the back yard. Both of us saw the object at the same time. The camera! Paul thought it was in the car but I was sure it was in the house. I was right—and the Kodak was loaded with film..."^[5]