Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D layered wood map in laser-cut Baltic birch, shown framed against a light wall
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Lake Cumberland, Kentucky 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 394.00 $ 475.00
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 Cumberland in stacked Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: Kentucky's great houseboat water carved one depth contour per layer, a flooded river gorge with over a thousand miles of shoreline folded into it.

Cumberland calls itself the houseboat capital of the world, and the geography explains why: when Wolf Creek Dam backed up the Cumberland River in the early 1950s, it filled a deep, winding gorge whose steep sides and endless side hollows created a lake that is nearly all sheltered coves, perfect for rafting up a floating house for the week. The water runs deep and clear over the drowned river channel, and the marinas at Jamestown and Burnside launch fleets every summer Friday. On the chart, the gorge's shape is everything: a narrow, snaking spine of deep engraved water with coves branching like veins through the birch.

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

Every regular has a home cove and guards its name. The chart knows them all and tells no one.

The engraving spans Wolf Creek Dam, Jamestown and Burnside, the main channel's bends, and the major creek arms. Its Carolina counterpart is Lake Norman.

  • 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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