Calgary, Canmore and Banff
Weeding the backyard beds, and now there is no Oura ring on your finger
Open the Oura app before you start digging through the beds, and tell us what Locate showed.
An Oura ring that came off in your own Calgary backyard is on ground nobody outside the household has walked since, so a search is worth a message. What decides it is the order you worked the beds in and where the pulled weeds and clippings were emptied.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Calgary, Canmore or Banff with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the yard, the park or the street, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Outside the yard, this page also covers city parks, Fish Creek and ball diamonds in Calgary, Quarry Lake and the town parks of Canmore, and the streets, riverbank and lakes of Banff.
Metal detector hire is a fair first try when the ring can only be in the one bed you were kneeling at. If it may have gone into the weed bag, the compost or somewhere across the lawn, or if it was lost in a park, ask us about a detectorist instead.
Put the rake and the mower away for now
Leave the bag of weeds and the grass clippings where they are, and check Locate in the Oura app. Push a garden stake into the ground where you last remember having the ring on, then take one photo of the whole yard from the back door.
For a loss in a Calgary or Canmore park, the field or diamond number and the picnic site you used place you quickly. In Banff, give us the street and the shop front you were outside, or the lake and the stretch of shore.
Places we cover in Calgary, Canmore and Banff
- Backyards, front lawns and garden beds across Calgary
- Prince's Island Park, downtown Calgary
- Bowness Park and the Bowness Lagoon
- Riley Park, near Kensington
- Stanley Park, on the Elbow River
- Shouldice Athletic Park
- River Park off-leash area and Sandy Beach
- Sue Higgins Park, the fenced off-leash area
- Fish Creek Provincial Park and its day-use areas
- Community soccer fields and ball diamonds in Calgary
- Canmore: Riverside Park
- Centennial Park and Centennial Field, Canmore
- Millennium Park, Canmore
- Lions Park, Canmore
- Quarry Lake, Canmore
- Backyards and sports fields in Canmore
- Banff: Banff Avenue
- Bear Street, Banff
- Central Park and the Bow River, Banff
- Johnson Lake and Lake Minnewanka
- Residential streets and yards in the Town of Banff
Calgary parks first, then west to Canmore and Banff
A named spot lets the detectorist start in the right corner.
Prince's Island Park, downtown Calgary
Prince's Island Park is a heavily used island park in the Bow River, right in downtown Calgary. It holds large events such as the Canada Day celebration and the Calgary Folk Festival. On an ordinary day people come for the picnic areas and the flower gardens, and at the east end a pathway winds around a constructed wetland.
Bowness Park and the lagoon
Bowness Park runs along the Bow River in the northwest, between Stoney Trail and 85 Street. Its shallow lagoon is popular for paddle boating in summer, and the park is well used for picnics and for getting down to the river.
Riley Park and Stanley Park
Riley Park, within walking distance of Kensington, has a cricket pitch and the Senator Patrick Burns Memorial Rock Garden on its tree-lined northern hillside. Stanley Park lies along the Elbow River in the southwest, with a sports field, picnic areas and canoe and raft access to the river.
Shouldice Athletic Park and the city fields
Shouldice Athletic Park in the northwest has artificial turf and grass fields and a set of ball diamonds. Every field and diamond has a number. Any community soccer field or ball diamond in Calgary can be described the same way, by field, end and bench.
River Park, Sandy Beach and Sue Higgins Park
River Park in the southwest has a large designated off-leash area, and below it on the Elbow River, Sandy Beach has playgrounds, picnic sites and a launch for rafts and canoes. Sue Higgins Park, once called Southland Park, in the southeast, has a fenced off-leash area. Say where along the fence you walked and where the dog was running when you noticed.
Fish Creek Provincial Park
Fish Creek runs across the south of the city, with a long pathway through the middle of the park and day-use areas such as Bebo Grove, Votier's Flats, Glennfield and Bow Valley Ranch.
Quarry Lake and the town parks of Canmore
Riverside Park, close to downtown, looks out over the Bow River and is popular for picnics and family gatherings. Centennial Park hosts Canada Day, the Canmore Folk Festival and the Canmore Highland Games, and includes Centennial Field and the Stan Rogers Stage. Team sports are played at Millennium Park, and Lions Park has a field, a ball diamond and a large playground. Quarry Lake, on the road towards the Nordic Centre, is a former open-pit coal mine now holding very cold water, with a small beach, a short trail and a large off-leash dog park beside the lake.
Downtown Banff, the Bow and the lakes
Banff Avenue and Bear Street are both downtown streets in the town of Banff. Bear Street was rebuilt as a pedestrian-priority street with no curbs, where people sit on planters ringed with Rundle rock boulders, benches and cafe patios. Central Park lies on the bank of the Bow, with a paved riverside path, picnic tables and lawns. Out on the Lake Minnewanka Loop Road, Johnson Lake is the nearest thing Banff has to a beach, and a lakeshore trail leaves the boat docks at Lake Minnewanka.
The way we work a case
No form to fill in
Everything happens in one WhatsApp chat, in ordinary messages. We ask about your own yard or park, such as which bed you knelt at or which diamond you played on.
Leave the stake in
The garden stake you pushed in stays where it is until the search is over. It marks the spot you are surest of.
When the bag has gone
If the weeds or clippings went out for collection before you noticed the ring was missing, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Costs first
We explain the costs before any search is booked. If the ring turns up in the meantime, one short message closes the chat.
From garden soil to the riverbank
Home first, then the playing fields, then the Bow and the Elbow.
Beds and lawns at home
A ring can end up in the bag of pulled weeds or the clippings as easily as in the bed itself. Tell us where each bag or barrow load was emptied.
Turf and grass fields
On a field or diamond, give us the part you used, such as the dugout, the sideline or the goal mouth, and whether you changed ends at half time.
The Bow and the Elbow
Bowness Park, Shouldice and Central Park in Banff all sit on the Bow River, and Stanley Park and Sandy Beach have canoe and raft access to the Elbow. If you were at the water, say whether you were on the bank, wading or getting into a boat, and pin where you went in.
Questions about Calgary, Canmore and Banff
How do I start looking for an Oura ring that came off while I was weeding our Calgary backyard?
In the Oura app, open My Devices and tap Locate. If location services were on before the ring went missing, the map shows where it last connected to your phone, and Search follows its Bluetooth signal as you walk the beds, as long as the ring still has charge. If nothing shows, leave the pulled weeds in their pile and tell us which beds you worked on, in what order.
Where do we begin with a wedding band lost at the Folk Festival on Prince's Island?
With where you sat. At a festival on Prince's Island, the stage you faced and the patch your tarp or chairs took up come first. Then list where else you went on the island, such as the picnic areas, the flower gardens or the pathway at the east end, and which way you walked on and off it.
Paddling round the Bowness Park lagoon, one of us leaned over and the car keys fell out of a jacket pocket.
The lagoon at Bowness Park is shallow, so where you were on it is the whole question. Tell us what you could see on the shore at that moment, such as the tea house, the Mini-Train or the boat rentals, and whether you were out in the middle or close to one bank. The spare set is worth photographing too, fob and all.
Can an earring lost while watching cricket at Riley Park be found?
It can be. Riley Park is home to one of Calgary's cricket pitches, so start with which side of it you watched from, whether you were on a blanket or at a picnic table, and whether you wandered up into the rock garden on the northern hillside. Keep the other earring somewhere safe; we will ask what it looks like.
My watch went missing during a softball game at Shouldice Athletic Park.
The City of Calgary numbers every field and diamond at Shouldice, so the diamond number is the first thing to give us. Then your fielding position, whether you batted, and where you sat between innings, on the bench or at a picnic site. If you walked across one of the turf fields afterwards, say which one.
What helps with a chain that came off at the Lions Park playground in Canmore?
Lions Park has a large playground with two play structures, and Lions Field, the ball diamond and the tennis courts sit in the same park. Say which structure the chain was worn on, whether anyone went down a slide or climbed through, and whether you crossed to the field or the courts before anyone noticed it had gone.
Somewhere between Bear Street and Banff Avenue, my bracelet came undone on our last evening in Banff.
File a Lost Property Report with the Town of Banff, because anything found in town can be handed in at Town Hall or to the RCMP. For us, trace the evening: the planter, bench or patio on Bear Street where you stopped, and the corner where you crossed to Banff Avenue.
Calgary and Banff
Whether it was the backyard or a park across town
Start with the bed, the field or the street.
Once you have tried Locate, or if what is missing is not an Oura ring at all, message us on WhatsApp with a photo of it and a line on what you were doing when you last had it on.