Unto These Hills  Unto These Hills is an outdoor historical drama during summers at the 2,800-seat Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee in western North Carolina. It is the third-oldest outdoor historical drama in the United States, after "The Lost Colony" in Manteo in eastern North Carolina, and "The Ramona Pageant" in Southern California. The first version of the play was written by Kermit Hunter and opened on July 1, 1950, to wide acclaim. The play recounts the history of the Cherokee of the Eastern region up to their removal by United States forces in 1838 via the Trail of Tears to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. The drama includes notable Cherokee historic figures, including Sequoyah, Junaluska, Chief Yonaguska or Drowning Bear, and William Holland Thomas (the adopted son of Drowning Bear and the only white chief of the Cherokee), Selu the Corn Mother, and Kanati the Great Hunter. The Western North Carolina Associated Communities (WNCAC) in western North Carolina wanted to develop tourism and promote economic growth in the western part of the state. Inspired by the success of Paul Green's historic outdoor drama, or political pageant, The Lost Colony, the WNCAC decided to make another political pageant about the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) in Cherokee North Carolina. When Paul Green was unavailable to write a second play, they commissioned UNC grad student Kermit Hunter to write the new outdoor drama. With the help of Joe Jennings, director Samuel Selden chose the breathtaking backdrop for the drama in the EBCI's homeland of Cherokee, North Carolina. The Mountainside Theatre theater was then built for this outdoor drama. The play was first produced on July 1, 1950. It was immediately successful with more than 100,000 audience members in its first year of production. The play has run for more than 60 years at the Mountainside Theatre, which is owned and operated by the EBCI. It is staged Monday through Saturday evenings. Famous alumni of "Unto These Hills" include Michael Rosenbaum, best known for his portrayal of Lex Luthor on "Smallville"; Adam Richman, host of Travel Channel's "Man v. Food"; Polly Holliday, of the 1970s sitcom "Alice"; and actor and former U.S. Representative Ben L. Jones of Georgia, a regular on CBS's "The Dukes of Hazzard". In 2006, the EBCI Tribal Government hired playwright Hanay Geiogamah (Kiowa) to revise the script, the first complete rewrite since the play was instituted.