Tompkins sits on the Trans-Canada Highway in the Rural Municipality of Gull Lake No. 139, between Maple Creek and Swift Current. The village takes its name from Thomas Tompkins, a contractor who worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. It incorporated as a village on June 2, 1910.
Tompkins has several small businesses that rely on local shopping and the loyalty of its residents.
The village's best-known figure was Gus Wickstrom, who became famous well beyond Saskatchewan and appeared on The Daily Show, on TV shows across Canada, and on American television and radio. He forecast the weather by examining raw pig spleens for their colour, width, length and fatty deposits, and from them predicted temperatures, hot and cold spells, snow, rain and drought up to eight months ahead. The practice goes back to his Scandinavian heritage. Gus died in 2007. The sitcom Corner Gas paid tribute to both him and the village by naming the unseen editor of its local newspaper, The Howler, Gus Tompkins.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Tompkins, Saskatchewan” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.