At about 7:30 p.m. on May 11, 1950, Evelyn Trent was walking back from feeding rabbits on the family farm near Sheridan, Oregon, when she saw a slow-moving metallic disc. She called her husband Paul, who fetched a camera and took two photos before it moved off to the west.
The Trents did not rush to develop the film; they finished the roll first. When the local paper ran the photos a month later they were picked up by newspapers across the country and by Life magazine.
The Condon Committee's photo analyst found the pictures hard to explain in 1969. Later studies of the shadows and the object's position concluded it was a small model hanging from the wires above the camera. Supporters dispute those studies, and the Trents stood by their story all their lives.