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America in hope of keeping the play alive.
• Meier and his small company traveled throughout the United States, giving performances wherever they could find an audience and developing a strong reputation. Meier let it be known that he was seeking a permanent home for the Passion Play. A committee representing nearly every community in the Black Hills contacted Meier, urging him to visit that spot of beauty in western South Dakota. When Meier visited a location on the west edge of Spearfish that offered an excellent natural amphitheater with mountain scenery as a backdrop, Meier realized that the Passion Play had found its home.
• A set was built and seating for 6,000 was constructed on a hillside. More than 14,000 people attended the premiere season in 1939.
• With Lookout Mountain as a backdrop, the play's two-and-a-half-block long stage transported audiences back to the days of Christ. The 22 scenes from Jesus making his triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the resurrection were presented without interruption. All the characters and animals of ancient Jerusalem were there: donkeys, sheep, camels, doves, Roman soldiers on horses, water girls, temple girls, priests, merchants, citizens, shepherd boys and more.
• For many attending, the Bible was no longer only words; it became flesh.
• Except for a few professional actors and technical staff members, children, teens and adults from churches all over the Spearfish area volunteered at the production. Parents brought their children to see the Passion Play, and those children grew up to bring their own children to see it. The play was performed two to three times a

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