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

Lake Arrowhead, California 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Topographic Chart

$ 332.00
24.5 x 31 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.

Lake Arrowhead in laser-cut Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the San Bernardinos' deep blue jewel carved one depth contour per layer, coves, points, and all.

Arrowhead has been Hollywood's mountain hideout since the silent era, its Tudor-style village and wooded shoreline standing in for the Alps in old films and for privacy ever since. The lake itself stays remarkably clear and cold for Southern California, its waters reserved for the surrounding community, which keeps the coves quiet and the wooden boats polished; the classic Arrowhead Queen paddles visitors around the shoreline the way tour boats have here for generations. On the chart, the lake's many-fingered shape resolves into a birch basin of surprising depth, each cove its own pocket of layers.

Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and set behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.

Village weekends, dock mornings, pine-shadowed water: the whole altitude adjustment, framed.

The engraving spans the village and the dam, Blue Jay Bay, and the points and coves around the full shoreline. Its neighbor over the ridge is Big Bear Lake.

  • 24.5 × 31 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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