A free art exhibit at the Edina Senior Center Gallery beneath the library on Vernon Avenue west off Hwy 100 by Robert Hughes Perrizo runs through February 29. The exhibit entitled "Minnesota's Fascinating French Connection" reveals how later 17th century explorers such as Joliet, LaSalle, Duluth, and LeSueur followed to make the Louisiana Purchase possible.

It was in 1661,

a year after French fur traders Radisson and Groseilliers were the first non native people to see the Mississippi River, that King Louis XIV became ruler of France. All French claims the length of the great river from Minnesota to Louisiana were then made in his name.

Perrizo's oil paintings bring that epic 1660-1803 period to life though his portraits and storytelling scenes of French and Native Americans that were involved in the exploration. You're invited to come and view canoe men running dangerous rapids, trading rituals between the French and Indians, winter dogsled excursions, wild buffalo hunts, early trading post life and survival challenges of the wilderness. The gallery is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays.