Man separated while tubing on Otter Tail River is found safe

A 20-year-old West Fargo man who disappeared while tubing on the Otter Tail River northwest of Battle Lake was found safe Thursday night after a search that pulled in deputies, a rescue boat and a thermal drone.

The Otter Tail County Dispatch Center got the 911 call at about 9:12 p.m. Thursday, May 29, from a female reporting a missing person along the river just northwest of Battle Lake. Deputies said the man had separated from his group while tubing, and the group searched for him for about 10 minutes before they called authorities.

Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded with water patrol units, a thermal drone, the Battle Lake Fire and Rescue rescue boat and the Otter Tail County Sherp team. The man was found unharmed and on foot by a deputy in the 27000 block of County Highway 83, then cited for minor consumption of alcohol and returned to his group.

The incident underscores how quickly a familiar summer outing can turn into a search on a local waterway. Tubing on the Otter Tail River is a common warm-weather activity in Otter Tail County, but once a group gets stretched out by current, turns in the river or shifting spacing between tubes, one person can drift out of sight before anyone realizes it.

That risk stands out on the Otter Tail River State Water Trail, which the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says begins in Elbow Lake in Becker County and has no major rapids. The relative calm of the route can make it feel manageable, but this call showed that even a river without whitewater can demand a fast public-safety response when a tuber is unaccounted for after dark.

Otter Tail County has been pressing safety messages across several fronts as Memorial Day weekend and summer travel begin. County officials have also promoted seat-belt awareness through the “Click It for Coffee” campaign, and the county’s public safety pages direct residents to water safety and boating resources. Thursday’s response tied those priorities together: one missed check-in on the river sent multiple agencies into the field before the man was found.

For families heading to the water this weekend, the lesson from Battle Lake is plain. Stay together, pick someone on shore who knows the route and expected return time, and call sooner if a person cannot be found. In Otter Tail County, a short delay on the water can become a public search in minutes, and this time the outcome was a safe one.