Earl Bakken co-founded Medtronic and invented the first wearable pacemaker — then built a museum to share his lifelong fascination with electricity and life. The Bakken Museum fills a storybook West Winds mansion near Lake Harriet with hands-on exhibits about the sparks that power our bodies and our world.
Kids generate static until their hair stands up, step into a lovingly spooky Frankenstein’s laboratory, and explore how batteries, hearts and brains run on the same electric logic. The museum’s collections of historical medical devices are world-class, and its gardens and inventor camps keep young tinkerers busy all summer.
It’s science with a heartbeat — literally — and one of the Twin Cities’ most original small museums.
