TheGreat Works River is a 30.6-mile-long (49.2 km)[1] river in southwesternMaine in theUnited States. It rises in centralYork County and flows generally south pastNorth Berwick and joins thetidal part of theSalmon Falls River atSouth Berwick.
The native Newichawannock band ofAbenaki called it theAsbenbedick. In July 1634, William Chadbourne, James Wall and John Goddard arrived fromEngland aboard the shipPied Cow with a commission to build asawmill andgristmill at the river's Assabumbadoc Falls.[2] The sawmill they built, thought to be the first over-shot water-powered site in America, was located in the "Rocky Gorge" below today's Brattle Street bridge.[3][4] Their sawmill was rebuilt with up to 20 saws on what was then the "Little River" in 1651 byRichard Leader, an engineer granted exclusive right to thewater power. It was thereafter called the "Great mill workes," from which the Great Works River derives its present name.
43°13′05″N70°48′43″W / 43.21792°N 70.81206°W /43.21792; -70.81206
