The skating rink, a barnlike structure clad with corrugated metal, had been recently demolished. Dawson alderman Frank Barrett hired a backhoe operator to dig exploratory holes at the site to determine the extent of the permafrost. As Barrett watched nearby, the bucket unearthed a metal box filled with reels of 35-millimetre black-and-white film.
One problem was, the frozen film was all nitrate-based, highly inflammable and nobody wanted to touch the stuff. There were others.
There is also a pretty terrific movie, called Frozen Time, that draws on Klondike scenes from the films found in the Klondike.
