Passing through San Antonio, New Mexico I had to have a famous green chili cheeseburger and see Trinity Site.
Okay, I have a confession- I didn’t actually make it to the Trinity site in New Mexico, but I did have an excellent green chili cheeseburger.
Trinity Site in actually only open two days a year to the public and my trip through central New Mexico (destination Alamogordo) with the family fell two weeks before the scheduled “open house”. I am however, going to go ahead and count that I came close enough to the site to record it on the blog because I believe close enough is good enough when it comes to radiation and the nuclear bomb.
July 16, 1945 ushered in a whole new era of consequence when the world’s first atomic bomb was detonated at Trinity Site on the extreme northern end of White Sands Missile Range in central New Mexico. Today, they say Trinity Site is a mildly radioactive blight in the middle of nowhere only few of the general public have seen. In fact, there supposedly are only a few witnesses of the detonation of the atomic bomb back in 1945. Sure windows were blown out in Socorro over a hundred miles away and the ground supposedly shook in Albuquerque but few actually saw the mushroom firsthand.
Well, there is a small historical note of interest: the Owl Café and Bar in San Antonio, New Mexico. Supposedly, the scientists who worked on the first atom bomb loved coming to the small restaurant and ordering (what is now the famous green chili cheeseburger). On the day before the first atomic detonation the scientist told the owners of the Owl Café to be outside at 5am the next day but didn’t tell them why. Faithful to the directions the staff of the little café were among the only witnesses to the first atomic blast.
