This is the spot where the first Englishman stepped foot on what was to eventually become the continental United States. In 1605, Captain George Waymouth was sailing his ship along the rugged coast and decided to explore by traveling up the wide river which emptied into the ocean. When he made landfall at what is now Thomaston, he was amazed to find the area filled with huge trees... all with very straight trunks, which, to an English sailor, translated into material for ships' masts. He excitedly ordered his men to cut down trees and he filled his ship with this rich cargo and headed back to England.

Captain Waymouth is the man who gave the river its name: St. Georges River.

From that date until the Revolutionary War, the masts and much of the wood for British ships came from Thomaston. Because the English kept returning to the area, the St. Georges River became a very well mapped estuary, especially because it provided, in its 12 mile length to Thomaston, a "safe harbor" from the hurricanes and frequent severe storms of the north Atlantic Ocean.

The name of the river has been noted with two different spellings. Depending on what map you consult or what book you read, the spelling changes from St. Georges to St. George. The explanation for this is really quite simple. The river had, at one time, been the dividing line between French and English controlled land. Anything east of the river fell under the jurisdiction of the French. And the two spellings are simply the French and the English spelling of the same name.

For many years it was thought that the Town of Thomaston had been named in honor of General John Thomas. But lingering doubts by some members of the historical society continued to exist because the name "Thomas Town" and "Thomas' Town" kept springing up in historic documents long before Gen. John Thomas did anything for which he could have been honored. In addition, Major General Thomas had no connection to Thomaston, either through birth or place of residence.

In the spring of 2001, Mr. Baniah Hardy presented the Thomaston Historical Society with a document for our collection that included an English translation of "Thomas Le Febvre Et Le Fief Kouesanouskek". The document was about a man from Quebec, Canada, named  Thomas LaFebvre. In the early 18th century, he owned a huge amount of land along the Weskeag River in what is now South Thomaston and a very large portion of the property that is now the Town of Thomaston. (Thomaston had, at one time, included all of the land that now comprises the towns of Thomaston, South Thomaston and Rockland.) LeFebvre built a large grist mill on the Weskeag River and built a house on the shoreline. After bringing two of his sons to the area to help develop it, he eventually returned to Quebec. It was during his stay here that the area was first recognized and called "Thomas' town".

As this naming took place long before General Thomas was even born, the most probable explanation for the naming of the town must be credited to Thomas LeFebvre whose stay in the area began in 1704.