The Outdoor Recreation Boom
In the 1980s and 90s, the traffic made it almost impossible to drive through the Qualla Boundary, the territory of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), during the summer. Families flocked to Cherokee to visit shops and see the outdoor historical drama,
Unto These Hills, which tells the story of the forced removal of the Cherokee to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears. In those days, the show, held at the 2,800-seat Mountainside Theatre, would be sold out for the night before lunch.
Over the past decade, tourism within the Qualla Boundary has drastically dropped. There was no 2020 season of