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

Lake Minnetonka, Minnesota 3D Wood Map | Laser-Cut Birch Depth Chart

$ 418.00
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 Minnetonka in laser-cut Baltic birch, 24.5 by 31 inches: the whole maze of bays, channels, points, and islands that makes this the most intricate lake shape in the Upper Midwest, every contour its own layer.

The Dakota name means great water, and Minnetonka earns it sideways rather than straight across: more than a dozen named bays fold around peninsulas and narrows, wrapping some 125 miles of shoreline around a lake you can drive past without ever seeing whole. Steamboats once carried resort crowds between landings, and the streetcar boats of the early 1900s still run restored today out of Excelsior. On the chart, the lake finally makes sense: Wayzata Bay, Excelsior Bay, the Narrows, Big Island sitting in the middle of it all, each bay its own pocket of stacked birch connected by engraved channels.

Contours are cut sheet by sheet and stacked by hand, names engraved into the wood, acrylic glass over the relief, solid Baltic birch frame.

Everyone on this lake navigates by bay names, and every bay has its loyalists. Yours is here, correctly shaped at last.

Wayzata and Excelsior anchor opposite shores, with Big Island, the Narrows, and the string of western bays between. The Twin Cities' own lakes are just east on the Minneapolis and St. Paul chart.

  • 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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