Columbia River Mouth, Oregon 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart
How the Water Becomes Wood
A chart is a stack of flat sheets until the water's real soundings tell it what shape to take.
- SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
- CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
- StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
- StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
- EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
- FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.
The Columbia River Mouth in stacked Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the river's collision with the Pacific carved one depth contour per layer, the most feared river entrance in North America rendered in wood.
They call the Columbia Bar the Graveyard of the Pacific, and some two thousand vessels have earned the name since records began, wrecked where the continent's great western river meets ocean swell over shifting sands. Bar pilots still board every ship that crosses. Lewis and Clark ended their journey within sight of this water in 1805, wintering at Fort Clatsop, and Astoria grew on the hills above as the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies. On the chart, the engraved channel threads between the jetties and the shoals that made the reputation, Cape Disappointment standing watch with its lighthouse.
Each contour is a separate laser-cut sheet, stacked by hand and engraved, behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light.
Respect for this water is the region's oldest tradition. The chart shows exactly why.
The engraving spans Astoria and its bridge, the jetties and bar, Cape Disappointment, and the river reach toward Tongue Point. The coast continues south on the Oregon Coast chart.
- 13.5 × 31 in
- Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark or Light
- Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
- Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
- 14-day returns
Live from the water