By
Bob Brewin
I'm reporting from White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss this week, a trip that gives me a chance to stop in San Antonio, N.M., and sample the marvelous green chili cheeseburger at the famed historic Owl Bar and Cafe.
The handsome wood bar inside the Owl comes from the first hotel operated by Conrad Hilton in San Antonio, though the emphasis of the place is on burgers, not booze.
The Owl, so legend goes, served as the hangout for the soldiers and scientists working on test of the first atomic bomb some 20 miles southeast at what was called at the time the Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, accessed then and now through Stallion Gate.
For a good, albeit mythical, take on the Owl, the bomb, San Antonio, Los Alamos National Lab -- and a crew of real life characters such as J. Robert Oppenheimer (the father of the atomic bomb) given a fictional twist in the key part of history -- I recommend Stallion Gate (Ballentine Books, 1987) by Martin Cruz Smith.