In 1954, New York City forcibly evacuated a town on Governors Island and, for whatever reason, buried under several feet of dirt. Recently, while building a park, the buried town was discovered and now they are excavating it.
According to one of the archaeologists that was on site to answer questions, there was a single factory in town during the 1900's, which manufactured snow (remember, it was the 1950's, and year-round snow was difficult to come by back then).
Update: Oh, poop. This is some sort of art thing or something. I should not be posting things at 10:45pm. Calling it a night.
Update: Scouting New York explains why he played it straight in the article above.