[gnarledmaw]

We have lakes here with drop-offs but we don't have people drowning like video game lemmings. There used to be a lot of quarry swimming too and those are all varying drop-off waters. I remember what seemed to be an unusual spike in drownings during the '70s but those were mostly drunk guys jumping head first off of short piers.

Is there something unusual that Im missing about this lake?

[Rio]

Nothing unusual about the lake. Some folks just don’t see the need to learn to swim - or to teach their kids to swim.

[dr_lew]

Based on photos of the divers and shoreline during the recovery operation, and the Google Maps view, it doesn’t appear that this is prepared or intended as a swimming area. There is no prepared beach. In seems that the principal use of the lake is by boaters, and in fact the drownings occurred at a picnic area near a boat ramp. Presumably the drownings occurred because the kids decided to go wading.