“It’s drop ’em off at the casino and pick ’em up at the casino,” Moody told Carolina Public Press. More than 84,000 visited the museum last year.īut at the casino complex – begun in 1999, expanded in 2015 to a satellite site 60 miles away and currently with new construction in Cherokee for a new hotel, ballroom and convention center – the traffic never stops.įor Jonathan Moody, who helps run the largest tour bus company in North Carolina, that steady flow of tourists spells business. Not far off the narrow, downtown strip that has lured tourists to Cherokee since automobiles made travel possible to these scenic Smoky Mountains, the celebrated Museum of the Cherokee Indian draws more than any other cultural landmark in town. “Unto These Hills” opened to audiences in 1950. All roads, it seems, lead to the towering, cavernous complex that is now into its third decade on the tribal home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.Īcross town, the outdoor drama that tells the story of the Cherokees’ forced removal to Oklahoma in 1838 has been around longer than the casino. The destination, though, is the same: Cherokee, N.C., and specifically Harrah’s Casino. From Greensboro, riders can sleep in a little later. In Florence, S.C., pickup comes at 5:45 a.m.

Eager travelers wait in lamp-lighted parking lots for their air-conditioned rides to pull up, hiss their doors open and load their human cargo. The tour buses crank up their engines before dawn. While the Cherokee tribe and the region have benefited economically from the casino dollars, some are concerned that it’s taking attention away from the culture and history of the Cherokee people. Another 1.4 million visited Harrah’s newer Valley River Casino & Hotel in Murphy, which opened four years ago. Last year, 4 million visitors passed through the doors to the casino, to its 1,000 hotel rooms and to its 24-lane bowling alley and concert venue.

On a casino floor approaching the size of three football fields, the roulette tables and slot machines are open for business 24 hours a day. The business of casinos is transforming some areas of Western North Carolina and creating jobs, but that may be a mixed blessing at best.

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