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3.26.7

The Trent Trickster Three

The Third Photo

In 1950, in McMinnville, Oregon, Paul Trent took two photographs of a UFO flying above his property. While there’s been the usual attempts at debunking this case over the years, it’s held up pretty well, and is considered one of the classic UFO cases that seems genuine.

Recently, the UFO Iconoclast bloggers posted an entry that revealed they had in their possession a “third, lost” Trent photo.

And after all this time, more than fifty years later, the UFO Iconoclast bloggers receive an alleged “third, lost” Trent photo. One of the first questions that I had when coming across this was why them? That blog is “anti” UFO. They’re known for hyperbole, debunking, mocking, and all the rest. Their basic philosophy seems to be: whatever UFOs are, and we admit they are, who cares anyway? Anyone who does is a pathetic mentally deluded moron.”

So anyway. Someone from Phoenix, Arizona, going by the name “SMC” gives them this third photo. No analysis, source, reasons, story -- just the photo.

No surprise the whole thing turned out to be a mini-hoax. The photo was no lost, third Trent photo. I don’t know if there was ever really an individual in Arizona who sent them the photo, or if they made the whole thing up. My intuition tells me they made the entire thing up.

And the photo? Turned out to be taken from the UFO Casebook website. It’s a photo of a UFO taken in Germany in March of 1977 by witness Walter Schilling.

Threes and the Trickster

Three is a magic number in the Western world. It appears in folklore, legends and myth all the time. We say that “death comes in threes,” that there are “three magic wishes,” that things come in threes. Usually angels, strange beings, odd visitors, magical beings in fairy tales come in threes. In stories and jokes we almost always have two “set-ups” before the third, the punch line. Things in threes, from the mundane to the mystical, are prevalent in our culture, religions, entertainment --simply everywhere.

The Trickster, being an innate part of UFOlogy and Forteana, was having some fun with this “third” Trent photo. A reminder that there will always be pranks, hoaxes and tricksters about, playing with out minds, while we try to slog away at the truth. Which in itself seems pointless, since I happily admit we’ll never get there.

The chronic skeptics and the like see this as a criminal waste of time, and almost clinically insane, especially when people, like myself, admit we’re never going to get to the truth or find the Big Answer.

Some of us are more process oriented, I suppose, and find the mystery and journey exciting . We do get little glimpses here and there, and that’s enough to keep us going.

Even when the Trickster puts in its obligatory appearance.

Notes

Regan Lee:

Still a Mystery, and a Big Question: The Trent Farm/McMinnville Oregon Case, UFO Digest

A “Lost” Trent Farm Photo Surfaces ?, UFO Digest

The Trent Tempest, UFO Digest

The lost Trent/McMinnville photo ?,UFO Iconoclast blog

UFO Casebook


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