A Family Vacation Guide To The Appalachian Mountains

For more than 50 years,  Cherokee players have performed the stirring drama Unto These Hills for over five million people. Under the stars on summer nights, the story of the Cherokee people unfolds in breath taking sights and sounds.

Music and dance traditions are woven into the play, as are the historical stories of Cherokee legends.


 The historical production begins with the arrival of a Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto in 1540 and then ends with the removal of the Cherokee from their ancestral lands in Georiga on the Trail of Tears in 1838. 

UNTO THESE HILLS SPANISH EXPLORER HERNANDO DE SOTO


Heroes of the Cherokee are honored in Unto These Hills, including Sequoyah, the creator of the Cherokee alphabet; Junaluska, a wise leader, and Tsali, a brave chief who gave his life for the Cherokee people.

130 technical staff recreate the traditional festivals, a Cherokee wedding and the world-famous Eagle Dance.



Unto These Hills is set in the Mountainside Theater, an outdoor theater that seats 2,800 people.

Unto These Hills was first presented in its current form in 1950, but an early version of this play was performed as early as the 1930s at the Cherokee Fall Fair. The cast of Unto These Hills is drawn from local Cherokee people and students of the drama department at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and each year's production adds new elements.

The Eternal Flame burns at the entrance to the Mountainside Theater. 

  UNTO  THESE  HILLS  ETERNAL  FLAME 


The Cherokee people believe that as long as the flame burns, they will survive as a people. The flame was carried to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears in 1838 and was brought back to Cherokee, North Carolina from Oklahoma in 1951. The flame is still burning.

Tickets for Unto These Hills can be purchased on-line, by phone, at the Mountainside Theater box office and at the Cherokee Historical Association office at US Highway 441 and Drama Road.

Reserved seats are $18 (all ages). General admission is $16 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-13, and free for children under 6. Group discounts are available. * Prices are subject to change without notice and from what is listed on this webpage.


Unto These Hills is performed nightly, except Sundays, from mid-June through late August. Showtime is 8:30 pm. Pre-show performances of music and dance start by 8:00 pm 

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