He has finished cleaning the pieces. Lindroth says there is no way to put the loom back together incorrectly. Each piece was crafted to only fit where it belongs. The loom is a rare example of frontier life in Gasconade County. Having to weave by hand every scrap of material that you used was tedious enough. But even before that could happen, huge trees had be felled and then crafted into a loom. Fasteners such as nails and wooden pegs (top, right) also had to be made by hand. The few metal pieces on the loom, such as the gear (right) had to be forged. Once the loom was put together, there was still the small detail of the raw material women needed to weave. Flax or cotton had to be grown from seed, or sheep raised to shear. Those materials then had to be spun into thread or yarn. After all of that preparation, the loom could be used. Lindroth hopes to have the loom set up and ready for display sometime this fall at the Gasconade County Historical Society Museum in Owensville.

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