Tompkins, Saskatchewan
Encyclopedia
Tompkins is a village
in the southwestern portion of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan
. The village is located between Maple Creek
and Swift Current, on the Trans-Canada Highway
. The 2006 census
put the population of Tompkins at 173. The village was named for Thomas Tompkins, a CPR
railroad contractor.
Tompkins has several small businesses which thrive on the local shopping and dedication which has always been an asset to the citizens of Tompkins.
Tompkins' most famous celebrity was Gus Wickstrom who was known worldwide, and was featured on such programmes as the Daily Show, numerous Canada-wide TV shows, and various other USA TV and radio shows. He predicted the weather by looking at raw pig spleens for their colour, width, length and fatty deposits. From this, he predicted temperature, extreme heat/cold periods, snow/rainfall and drought up to eight months in advance. This is a famous practice dating back to his Scandinavian heritage. Gus died in 2007.
The popular Canadian sit-com Corner Gas pays tribute to both Gus Wickstrom and Tompkins in having the publisher/editor/writer of the local newspaper The Howler named Gus Tompkins. The character, though often talked about, is never seen.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
in the southwestern portion of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan
Saskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of . Saskatchewan is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dakota....
. The village is located between Maple Creek
Maple Creek
Maple Creek may refer to:*Maple Creek, California*Maple Creek, Saskatchewan*Maple Creek , Canadian riding*Maple Creek, Wisconsin*Maple Creek crater...
and Swift Current, on the Trans-Canada Highway
Trans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...
. The 2006 census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
put the population of Tompkins at 173. The village was named for Thomas Tompkins, a CPR
Canadian Pacific Railway
The Canadian Pacific Railway , formerly also known as CP Rail between 1968 and 1996, is a historic Canadian Class I railway founded in 1881 and now operated by Canadian Pacific Railway Limited, which began operations as legal owner in a corporate restructuring in 2001...
railroad contractor.
Tompkins has several small businesses which thrive on the local shopping and dedication which has always been an asset to the citizens of Tompkins.
Tompkins' most famous celebrity was Gus Wickstrom who was known worldwide, and was featured on such programmes as the Daily Show, numerous Canada-wide TV shows, and various other USA TV and radio shows. He predicted the weather by looking at raw pig spleens for their colour, width, length and fatty deposits. From this, he predicted temperature, extreme heat/cold periods, snow/rainfall and drought up to eight months in advance. This is a famous practice dating back to his Scandinavian heritage. Gus died in 2007.
The popular Canadian sit-com Corner Gas pays tribute to both Gus Wickstrom and Tompkins in having the publisher/editor/writer of the local newspaper The Howler named Gus Tompkins. The character, though often talked about, is never seen.