Crystal Lake, Michigan 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Crystal Lake, Michigan 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Crystal Lake, Michigan 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Crystal Lake, Michigan 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 148.00
16 x 20 in
Baltic birch, hand-stained water
Up to nine laser-cut birch layers
Carved bathymetric relief, laser-etched labels
Soundings: NOAA nautical survey data
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.

  1. SurveyReal bathymetric sounding data sets every contour line before a single cut is made.
  2. CutEach depth band is laser-cut from its own sheet of Baltic birch, up to nine layers deep.
  3. StainWater layers are stained by hand, reading darker the deeper the water runs.
  4. StackThe sheets are registered and stacked in sequence, and the bed's true shape rises out of the wood.
  5. EtchDepths and place names are burned into the grain itself, never printed on it.
  6. FrameA solid Baltic birch frame and acrylic glass finish the piece, ready to hang.

Crystal Lake in Benzie County, carved from Baltic birch at 16 by 20 inches, with every depth contour cut and stacked so the lake's deep glacial trough shows in true relief.

Crystal owes its beaches to a famous mistake. In 1873, Archibald Jones cut a channel meant to open the lake to boat traffic, and instead the water level dropped some 20 feet, exposing the ring of sand that circles the lake today. Locals still call it the Tragedy of Crystal Lake, though every swimmer since has quietly benefited. The lake remains one of Michigan's clearest and deepest, its basin falling past 160 feet, and on the chart that 1873 shoreline story is visible in the wide, shallow top shelf that surrounds the deep central stack of birch.

Each layer is laser-cut to a survey contour and assembled by hand, names engraved into the wood, acrylic glass over the relief, solid Baltic birch frame around it.

Beulah sits at the east end on land the lake gave up, and everyone with a cottage on this water knows the story. Now the whole thing hangs on the wall.

Frankfort and its harbor lie just west where the coast meets Lake Michigan, with the M-22 route running past the lake's north shore toward Glen Lake and the dunes.

  • 16 × 20 in
  • Solid Baltic birch frame
  • Acrylic glass front, ready to hang
  • Free next-business-day shipping on orders placed by 2 PM EST
  • 14-day returns
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