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

Lake Huron, Michigan 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 188.00
16 x 20 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.

Huron is the Great Lake people underestimate, and this chart makes the case for it: the second largest of the five by surface area, cut layer by layer into Baltic birch at 16 by 20 inches.

The numbers here are quietly staggering. Georgian Bay alone is nearly the size of Lake Ontario, its Thirty Thousand Islands form the largest freshwater archipelago in the world, and Manitoulin Island is the largest freshwater island anywhere. Huron even shares a surface elevation with Lake Michigan, joined at the Straits of Mackinac, so hydrologists count them as one lake. On the chart you can see why divers call the Thunder Bay region Shipwreck Alley: the shoal water that claimed those hulls sits right there in the top layers of birch.

Every contour is laser-cut from a separate sheet, stacked so the lakebed's shape builds up in real relief, with names and depths engraved into the wood. Acrylic glass fronts the piece and a solid Baltic birch frame finishes it.

If your summers meant the sunrise side of Michigan, or a cottage on the Bruce, your water is here.

The engraving spans Saginaw Bay, the Straits and Mackinac Island, Thunder Bay off Alpena, and the passage at DeTour near Drummond Island. Huron also holds the eastern flank of the full Great Lakes chart.

  • 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
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