History of Sunset Magazine

I always enjoy reading Sunset Magazine and learning something new. The articles are tailored to gardening in the Western United States. The magazine publishes five regional editions - Pacific Northwest, Northern California, Southern California, Mountain, and Southwest. They publish many gardening books, including The Western Gardening Book, and a web site that is a valuable reverence tool: http://www.sunset.com/.

Sunset Magazine started as a Southern Pacific Railroad marketing publication in 1898. The railroad had obtained large land grants in the west, and their goal was to attract visitors and settlers. The publication was named after the Sunset Limited, a railroad that ran from New Orleans to San Francisco, via Los Angeles. The Southern Pacific Railroad sponsored many publications promoting the West as a healthful place to visit, a beneficial place to settle, and a profitable place for business, agriculture, and movie making. The Southern Pacific Railroad had a special photography car that toured the southern Pacific lines capturing stories and images from the West. The railroad acquired several small regional publications.

After World War II, the magazine emphasized Western living, and met the needs of returning service men and their families, who were eager to establish homes. In the 1950’s the publishing office moved from San Francisco to Menlo Park, into headquarters designed by Cliff May in the California ranch style, and with regional gardens designed by Thomas D. Church. In the 1960’s the magazine came out against DDT and in favor of more naturalistic gardening practices. In the 1990’s, they introduced the climate zone system for the Western United States. In 1998, the magazine celebrated 100 years of publishing. The magazine continues today, changing as needed to adapt, but still promoting Western living and gardens.

To learn more:

• Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West, 1850-1930, by Richard J. Orsi (University of California Press, Berkeley, 2005).
• Sunset Magazine: A Century of Western Living, 1898-1998 (Stanford University Libraries, 1998). A web version is available at http://sunset-magazine.stanford.edu/.