Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Seneca Lake, New York 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall

Seneca Lake, New York 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 248.00
13.5 x 43 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.

Seneca Lake in layered Baltic birch, 13.5 by 43 inches: the deepest of the Finger Lakes rendered in the longest format we cut, thirty-eight miles of water and 618 feet of depth, one laser-cut layer per contour.

Seneca is the Finger Lakes at maximum: so deep it almost never freezes, so large it moderates its own climate, which is why the wine trail wraps its shores more densely than any other lake in the region. The Navy has tested sonar in its cold depths for decades. Locals call it the lake trout capital of the world and back the claim with the National Lake Trout Derby, run out of Geneva every Memorial Day weekend since 1964. And on still nights, shoreline residents report the Seneca drums, distant booms off the water that folklore has never fully surrendered to science. On the chart, the plunge is everything: layer after layer of birch falling toward a bottom that lies far below sea level.

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

Watkins Glen sits at the foot of all that depth. The chart makes the pilgrimage make sense.

The engraving runs from Geneva at the head past Sampson and Lodi to Watkins Glen, vineyards on both shores. Companions: the full Finger Lakes chart and neighboring Canandaigua.

  • 13.5 × 43 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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