So Minnesota: Bakken museum honors local inventor, co-founder of Medtronic

From Apple to Amazon, many great companies started in a garage.

That includes the Minnesota medical device company Medtronic.

In 1949, Earl Bakken co-founded Medtronic and later developed the first wearable, battery-operated external heart pacemaker.

The Bakken Museum opened in 1975 by Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis.

The museum explores science, technology and the humanities, highlighting the inspiration and innovation of Bakken’s life story.

"He was a kid who liked to tinker, liked the idea of electricity and he was really interested in how electricity was fundamental to life," Museum CEO Michael Sanders said.

Bakken died in 2018, but his legacy lives on in the Bakken Museum.