Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 262.00
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.

The Twin Cities and their water, carved in Baltic birch at 13.5 by 31 inches: the Chain of Lakes, the Mississippi bending through both downtowns, and the geography that built two cities side by side, cut one contour per layer.

Minneapolis grew up around the only true waterfall on the entire Mississippi, St. Anthony Falls, whose power ran the mills that ran the city. St. Paul took the river's head of navigation just downstream. Between and around them lies the water that shapes daily life: the Chain of Lakes with Bde Maka Ska, Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake linked by parkways and paddled year-round, Minnehaha Creek dropping over its famous falls on the way to the river. On the chart, the chain reads as a string of birch basins threaded through the street grid, with the Mississippi engraved in its long S through both cities.

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

Around here, people are loyal to their lake the way other cities are loyal to neighborhoods. Whichever one is yours, it is on the chart.

The engraving spans the Chain of Lakes, Lake Nokomis, Minnehaha Falls, and the river through St. Anthony Falls and downtown St. Paul. The metro's big water lies just west on the Lake Minnetonka 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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