The Bakken Museum TODOTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities

Museums The Bakken Museum Date: October 12, 2025 3537 Zenith Ave S Minneapolis, MN 55416 Phone: (612) 926-3878 www.thebakken.org

I have a lot of people to thank for my great career in Electronic Engineering. But after the USAF it was Medtronic founded by Earl Bakken who started my professional career in Engineering. Thus, there has always been a special place in my heart for Medtronic and Earl Bakken who founded Medtronic.
I had known of the Bakken Museum for 20 years and always wanted to visit it. Last week the nice folks from Channel 9 morning show told me it was the once-a-year FREE visit weekend. So when my lovely bride asked what was on the schedule this weekend an empty Sunday needed to be filled with a desire of twenty years.
The Bakken Museum was project of Earl Bakken, the husband of a nurse of the 50s who worked in the cardiac unit at a local medical facility. After meeting a few heart surgeons, it became known Earl was pretty handy with a soldering iron and building electronics. So, when the surgeons need someone to put together one of the first crude pacemakers, they chose Earl Bakken to build it. One thing turned into another and a few years later Earl Bakken became the Founder of a company we now know as Medtronic’s.
Earl Bakken has given a lot to society and the Twin Cities. Gave me a job!... I attended his wedding reception at the Radison on Nicollet Ave. I felt honor, well as honored as the 2,000 other Medtronic employees also invited. It was typical Earl always giving back.
So over the years Earl desired to create a museum to display and honor the people and early things involving electricity and the human body. So in the 70s he bought a mansion on the west side of the south end of Lake Calhoun, I would use the Native American name for Lake Calhoun, but they won’t let me buy a vowel.
So, it was created the Bakken Museum, Earls place to teach about electricity. This marks its 50th year. So we went down for a tour with about one hundred other people. The only place to compare the Bakken Museum is to the St Paul Science Museum of Minnesota. The Museum is very much a hands on museum of electricity for the youth. There are dozens of exhibits, books and movies for the kids to learn about. They do a great job of talking about Dr Benjamin Franklin and the electrical science he worked on. All in a gorgeous mansion venue. And the grounds are impeccable. With a Bonsai exhibit and plant life all around.
One of my favorite exhibits was about Mary Shellys Frankenstein. Once there one will understand the link with Dr Franklin working with electricity and frog muscles, it is interesting to all. But there is an exhibit only for the more mature perhaps twelve years and older. It is a ten-minute interactive exhibity about Mary Shellys Frankenstein Book, which the Museum has a first edition of on display. During those ten minutes the small room gets dark, and the Frankenstein monster speaks. To me it was the highlight of the tour.
It took us about an hour to walk through the house and exhibits. The tour that day was free but it is normally: $14 adults, $12 for Seniors, $11 for Students, Kids 4-17 $10 and under 3 is free. But I think your kids should be at least 5 to enjoy the museum. You can also buy a membership fee for $150.

We will definitely bring the grand kids back.

Contact us Dennis@ToDoTC.com