A toddler who got into a hot tub at a popular northern Minnesota hotel died Friday in an apparent drowning, authorities said.

Tony Scovel, 21 months, wandered from a birthday party late Wednesday afternoon near the hot tub at the Sawmill Inn in Grand Rapids, said Police Chief Jim Denny.

The boy, from nearby rural Bovey, was pulled from the tub within minutes and efforts to revive him were made at the scene before he was taken to a Grand Rapids hospital, Denny said.

He was then transferred to a hospital in Duluth and died there, according to the chief.

Police say there is no evidence of neglect. "They were having a party, and the kid kind of wandered off a short distance" within sight of the gathering, Denny said.

Denny added that investigators do not believe that the hot tub's drain system played any role in the boy's death. "He just walked into the hot tub, and he obviously was too young to swim."

PAUL WALSH