Ben Welter

Ben Welter, a Minneapolis native and veteran Twin Cities journalist, has been reading newspapers since Sister Romana taught him how to say the alphabet backward and forward in first grade. In 2005, he began scouring his paper's microfilm in search of interesting stories and photos dating back to 1867. He has posted more than 500 of the best on his blog, Yesterday's News, startribune.com/yesterday.

He has written three books based on the blog. The latest is "Minnesota Moxie," featuring mostly true tales about Minnesotans, famous and obscure, who demonstrate grit, muscle and determination.

"Minnesota Mayhem: A History of Calamitous Events, Horrific Accidents, Dastardly Crime & Dreadful Behavior in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes" was his first book. It's a look at the best of the state's worst moments, from the catastrophic to the merely curious: A flu outbreak kills more than ten thousand Minnesotans in 1918. Frank Lloyd Wright is arrested at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926. A jailed stripper blames a wardrobe malfunction in 1953. A Duluth heiress is smothered by a cold-blooded killer in 1977. These fascinating stories and dozens more are presented in their original form, along with photos from the Star Tribune and other sources.

His second book, "Minnesota Mysteries: A History of Unexplained Wonders, Eccentric Characters, Preposterous Claims and Baffling Occurrences in the Land of 10,000 Lakes," explores some of the bizarre events and personalities left out of state history books. Meet Victor Setterlund, whose remarkable find less than 10 miles from the original Kensington Runestone made the front page. Meet Newmann the Great: In 1909, the Kenyon-born illusionist astonished Minneapolitans by driving a team of horses blindfolded across town to find a key hidden in a drugstore safe at Lake and Nicollet. Meet little Mary Weinand: In 1915, her father demanded justice when the "meanest boy" at her one-room schoolhouse in Corcoran cut off her luxurious auburn curls. These little-known stories, along with dozens more culled from Minnesota newspaper archives, are presented in their original form.

After more than 30 years of newspapering, Ben joined Entropy Solutions as director of communications in 2014. He manages the PureTemp.com website and Phase Change Matters, an award-winning industry blog that tracks latest news and research on phase change materials and thermal energy storage.