Mariana Great Falls Film — Earliest Military Analysis 1950

On the evening of May 11, 1950, Evelyn Trent was feeding rabbits at her family farm outside McMinnville, Oregon, when she noticed a metallic disc-shaped craft hovering over the property. She called to her husband Paul, who retrieved his Argus C3 camera and took two photographs before the object moved away and disappeared to the northwest. The photographs were developed, shared with neighbors, and eventually reached Life magazine, which published them in June 1950. The photographs show a clearly structured metallic disc with an underside flange and what appears to be a superstructure or tower on top. The objects appears large and is casting a shadow consistent with the ambient lighting. When the Condon Committee analyzed the photographs in the late 1960s, Dr. William Hartmann concluded that no definitive evidence of a hoax could be found and described the object as an 'unknown object in the air.' Subsequent analyses by Ground Saucer Watch, the University of Arizona, and other photogrammetry specialists repeatedly failed to identify the object as any manufactured model or known aircraft. The shadow and perspective geometry were consistent throughout both frames. The McMinnville photographs remain, after more than 75 years, one of the most credible and most-analyzed still photographs of an unidentified craft in UAP history.