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

Lake Geneva, Wisconsin 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 188.00
13.5 × 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.

Geneva Lake in layered Baltic birch, 13.5 by 31 inches: the long spring-fed basin, the estate shorelines, and the deep water that made this Wisconsin's grand old resort lake, cut one contour per layer.

After the Chicago fire of 1871, the city's wealthiest families came north and built their summer palaces here, and the lake has carried that Gilded Age bearing ever since. A public footpath circles the entire 21-mile shoreline, crossing every estate lawn on the water, a right-of-way older than the mansions themselves. In Williams Bay, Yerkes Observatory turned its great refractor on the sky for over a century. The lake itself drops to roughly 135 feet, and on the chart that deep central trough runs the length of the birch stack while the mail-boat route traces the shoreline layer above it.

Each contour is laser-cut and stacked by hand, names engraved, acrylic glass over the relief, solid Baltic birch frame.

Shore path walkers, mail boat jumpers, and every family with a pier number instead of an address: your stretch is engraved here.

Lake Geneva, Williams Bay, and Fontana anchor the shoreline, with Big Foot Beach along the east end. Madison's lakes are an hour north on the Mendota and Monona chart.

  • 13.5 × 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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