60TH ANNIVERSARY OF FOUR WHEELER MAGAZINE
The Feb. ’12 issue of Four Wheeler was perhaps one of our most significant. It marked 50 years of being published. Humans are lucky to live that long, let alone paper goods. To celebrate, we did a deep dive and revisited the magazine’s entire history—the ebb and flow of new 4x4s, how you were building and modifying your vehicles, groundbreaking new products, events from around the world, trends that went mainstream (or crashed and burned), automotive milestones, and everything else related to the off-road world.
Then we blinked.
We’re now at our 60th anniversary. Don’t think much of note could have happened in just 10 years that could shift the entire off-road industry? Without effort, some things that instantly come to mind include the increasing demand for electric vehicles, a global pandemic, a “new” segment called overlanding (to which we responded with our popular Four Wheeler Overland Adventure event), the rise and/or fall of diesel engines and compact trucks, and an auto manufacturer chip shortage that caused unremarkable used 4x4s to cost nearly as much as some base-model new ones. And while we’ve reflected mainly on happenings of the past decade, we did manage to sneak in a few moments from the previous decades, too.
Remember our 50th anniversary recap? It was in the February 2012 issue. We also did a 54th anniversary recap in the May ’16 issue, which may sound random to celebrate, but it was an excuse to put together a collection of “The Best”—our best-of feature trucks, adventures, ads, and Top Truck Challenge, with never-before-seen-before-then photos.
Truth be told, 60 years later, it still feels like we’re just getting started, because age is only a number, right? But we know we couldn’t have made it to any number, let alone to the diamond anniversary, without the ongoing support of our readers and advertisers, to which our gratitude is as immense as a monster truck.
It was the July ’20 “Firing Order” column that perhaps said it best: “As we’ve done since 1962, our goal is to offer 4x4 fans worldwide inspiration, entertainment, and information. So buckle up, Four Wheeler is on the throttle.” We’ve been at wide-open throttle from day 1 to day 21,900, and that’s where we’re staying. Thank you for being along for the ride!
How It Started, How It’s Going
“The first issue of a new magazine is really difficult to put together. There are so many things you want to include—and so many more facts about the stories you do include that the whole project is discouraging.”
—Feb. ’62, “Our First Year”
“Four Wheeler got started at a meeting of the California State Association of 4wd clubs in the fall of 1963 when I made a brief announcement of my idea. I sent out a subscription advertisement and our first subscriber, a confident man in Utah, sent in in [sic] his money for twelve issues.”
—Nov. ’65, “Editor’s Report”
“Four Wheeler is 30. In that time, the magazine has been up and been down, been saved and been lost, bought, and sold.”
—Mar. ’92, “Random Input”
“We receive dozens, sometimes hundreds of your readers rigs each month, and as regular readers know, there are never enough pages in the magazine to showcase them all.”
—Jan. ’07, “Limited Articulation”
“John F. Kennedy was President, Marilyn Monroe was still alive, John Glenn was the first American orbiting the earth in space, and a postage stamp cost four cents—that’s what was going on 50 years ago when Four Wheeler printed its first issue in February, 1962. It’s hard to put it in perspective, especially when you consider that the iPhone in your pocket has more computing power than John Glenn’s entire spaceship.”
—Feb. ’12, “Firing Order”
“For those new to the magazine world, David Freiburger is one of the main editors that helped transform off-road magazines like Petersen’s 4-Wheel & Off Road from mall-crawler showcases to technical how-to books that featured real-world wheeling trucks.”
