ANTHONY LAKE — A 71-year-old western Oregon man died Sunday morning, Aug. 23, at Anthony Lake in an apparent drowning.

According to a press release from the Baker County Sheriff’s Office, Robert James Akers, who is from Brownsville in the southern Willamette Valley between Eugene and Albany, was on the lake in a kickboat, a type of inflatable watercraft.

Anthony Lake is in the Elkhorn Mountains about 35 miles northwest of Baker City.

According to the sheriff’s office, Akers and his wife had been camping near Granite. They drove to Anthony Lake, about 25 miles from Granite, for a day trip. Akers was out on the lake when bystanders on shore noticed that he was having some kind of trouble, according to the sheriff’s office.

He then fell from the watercraft. Akers was not wearing a life jacket.

Baker County Dispatch received a report of the incident at about 11:30 a.m.

Two people in a canoe reached Akers after he had been lying face down in the water for three to five minutes,according to the sheriff’s office. The pair in the canoe pulled Akers onto rocks in the lake and began performing CPR. Medical personnel pronounced Akers deceased at the scene.

McClay said a medical examiner will determine the cause of death, whether it was a drowning or whether Akers had a medical issue preceding his fall into the lake.

The sheriff’s office urges people to wear a life jacket when recreating on or near water.

Three people drowned earlier this summer in Baker County, one at Brownlee Reservoir near Richland and two in Oxbow Reservoir.