McMinnville UFO incident

McMinnville UFO incident

This UFO incident occurred near the Trent couple's farm in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1950. Soon, the photos that they managed to make were published in their articles by LIFE magazine and the entire national press of the United States.

At 7:30 p.m. on May 11, 1950, Evelyn Trent was walking back to her home after feeding the rabbits on the farm. Mrs. Trent and her husband, Paul, lived on a farm about nine miles from McMinnville, near the town of Sheridan, Oregon. Before she reached the house, she noticed a metal disk-shaped object in the sky, moving at a slow speed in her direction from the northeast.

She started calling for her husband, who was at home. When he came out, he also noticed a mysterious object. After watching the UFO for a few seconds, Paul ran into the house to get his camera: he managed to return and take 2 photos before the object flew further west.

Paul Trent

Paul Trent

Evelyn Trent

Evelyn Trent

Wide publicity and investigation of the incident

Paul took some time to develop the film and apparently did not seek fame after the incident. When he told his banker friend Frank Watmann about the incident, the latter was intrigued, and he put the photos on the windows of his bank in McMinnville. Local reporter Bill Powell soon noticed the unusual photos and asked the banker to lend him the negatives. After examining the original film, he found no evidence that the photos were fake or that they were manipulated in any way.

McMinnville UFO incident

The McMinnville UFO Photos

On June 8, 1950, the story of the incident with Paul and his wife was published in a local newspaper article and was accompanied by two photographs that he took. The article and images soon came to the attention of the INS (International News Service) and were sent to other newspapers around the country, making the episode widely publicized. LIFE Magazine published pictures of Trent on June 26, 1950, also featuring photos of his camera and of Paul himself. The couple was promised that the negatives would be returned, but the couple never received them back.

The McMinnville UFO Photos

Later, in 1967, the negatives were found in the archives of United Press International, which had merged with INS a few years earlier. The negatives were then handed over to William Hartmann, an investigator for the state-funded UFO project at the University of Colorado.

The couple was not informed about the negatives found. Hartmann later admitted in an interview that he was surprised by the modesty of the Trent couple, as they never demanded to receive any remuneration for the photos and never sought to gain fame at the expense of them.

The McMinnville UFO Photos

The newspaper "Telephone Register", where an article about the incident was posted

During the study of the images, Hartmann came to the following conclusions, which he reflected in his official report to the committee:

These are one of the few UFO images in which all the factors studied (geometric, physical, and psychological) confirm the version that a metal flying machine is fixed in the images. It is clearly artificial, its shape resembles a disk, and the approximate size is about 10 meters in diameter.

The quote:

It was only when Hartmann completed his investigation that he handed the negatives back to United Press International, which the Trents were soon informed of. In 1970, Paul, due to the fact that the negatives were never returned to the owners and the spouses were not paid any compensation, demanded that the editor-in-chief of United Press International news, Philip Bladen, return them. For some reason, they were never returned.

In 1975, the negatives were found in the archives by Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a U.S. Navy physicist, and ufologist. Maccabee conducted his own broader analysis of the negatives and concluded that they were not fake and showed a real physical object in the sky above the Trent Farm. Only after a 25-year journey, the negatives were returned to the couple.

The aftermath of the McMinnville incident.

To this day, Trent's photographs are widely discussed among professional scientists, ufologists, and amateurs from all over the world. Evelyn Trent died in 1997, and her husband, Paul Trent, died in 1998. Both spouses insisted for the rest of their lives that their photos were authentic. The interest, in this case, was the reason for the foundation of the annual "UFO Festival" in McMinnville, which is the 2nd largest meeting of ufologists, scientists, and people who are not indifferent to the topic of UFOs around the world.

We analyzed these photos and came to the conclusion that most likely this is a very convincing fake. two factors point in favor of this version. First, by a lucky chance, both pictures of the dish were taken under the wires. Secondly, there is a small hook that is distorted, which is completely atypical for cymbals. When you increase the contrast of the image, it is easy to notice a straight thread. And finally, only two photos were posted, I very much doubt that two of them were taken. And if the other photos were convincing, they would certainly be published.

The McMinnville UFO Photos


About author:

Ufologist, PhD, blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon

Serg Toporkov

Ufologist, Ph.D., blogger, I go on my own expeditions for UFOs. I use scientific methods to investigate the UAP phenomenon. Write to me


Related tags:

McMinnville UFO  UFOs  USA  1950  ufo sightings  ufo photo  Trent UFO


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