Lake Okoboji, Iowa 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.
Lake Okoboji in laser-cut Baltic birch, 16 by 20 inches: Iowa's blue-water glacial lake carved one depth contour per layer, the deep heart of the Iowa Great Lakes.
West Okoboji is the lake Iowans brag about to coastal skeptics: glacier-dug, spring-fed, and startlingly clear and blue, dropping to depths most prairie lakes never dream of. Arnolds Park spins its historic wooden coaster above the shore as it has since the amusement park's early days in 1889, among the oldest in the country, and the chain runs on through East Okoboji and Spirit Lake in a summer culture of pontoons, sailing regattas, and university-of-Okoboji humor. On the chart, West Lake's deep engraved basin sits beside its shallower siblings, the glacial family portrait in birch.
Contours are laser-cut sheet by sheet, stacked by hand, engraved, and finished behind acrylic glass in a solid Baltic birch frame.
Blue water in corn country: the miracle, carved and framed.
The engraving spans West and East Okoboji, Arnolds Park, the bridges, and the connections toward Spirit Lake.
- 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
Live from the water