Few readers of Sunset Magazine know that the publication was started by Southern Pacific Railroad as a promotional gimmick to persuade East Coast residents to visit the West Coast. It flopped at first, but eventually Laurence Lane, a former Midwestern farmer, purchased the magazine with the idea of turning it into a West Coast version of Better Homes and Gardens, and Sunset was on its way.
Articles by Kathryn Leishman
In California, Fracking Foes Take Aim
Rarely has a single image from a documentary film sparked greater debate overnight: a Colorado homeowner turns on his faucet, and as soon as he puts a cigarette lighter to the tap water, it catches fire—the result of highly flammable methane seeping into the water supply from an oil drilling operation nearby. The drilling involves hydraulic fracturing, a controversial oil and gas extraction process the potential medical and environmental perils of which are the subject of the Oscar-nominated film Gasland.
