Great Lakes 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.
All five lakes, one piece of birch. This chart carves the entire Great Lakes system into stacked layers of wood, from Duluth at the western tip of Superior to the outflow of Ontario into the St. Lawrence, with every depth contour cut, layered, and engraved rather than printed.
The lakes hold about a fifth of the fresh surface water on Earth. Superior alone drops to 1,333 feet, the largest lake by surface area in the world, and Michigan and Huron are technically one body of water joined at the Straits of Mackinac. On this chart, all of that becomes physical: Superior's depth reads as layer after layer of birch falling away, while Erie, the shallowest of the five, sits close to the surface, exactly as it does in the water.
Each layer is laser-cut from Baltic birch and stacked by hand, so the contours you feel are actual steps in the wood, not shading. The finish brings out the grain, the engraving stays crisp at reading distance, and an acrylic glass front keeps dust off the detail without the weight or glare of real glass. At this scale, the frame matters too: solid Baltic birch, in Dark, Light, or White.
Anyone who grew up on these lakes has a spot on this chart. The dock, the crossing, the stretch of shoreline that meant summer. Most people find theirs within the first minute of looking.
The engraving covers the places that define the system: the Straits of Mackinac and Mackinac Island, Georgian Bay and the North Channel behind Manitoulin Island, the Apostle Islands and Isle Royale in Superior, the Door Peninsula between Green Bay and the open lake, Saginaw Bay, and the Keweenaw reaching into the biggest water. Each of the five is also available as its own chart at closer scale: Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.
- 16 × 20 in or 24.5 × 31 in
- Solid Baltic birch frame in Dark, Light, or White
- 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